


Looking Down From Cerulean Skies

by MoogleTerra



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Gen, Magic Meta, adventuring locke style, final fantasy vi novelization
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2128167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoogleTerra/pseuds/MoogleTerra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of FFVI. The Gestahlian Empire has been slowly spreading its influence north, and invaded the coal mining city, Narshe. With the help of a young woman named Terra, and the kingdom of Figaro, the Returners may have a way of rebelling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Bird Who Pilots Magitek Armor

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I've been very timid about wanting to post this on AO3 for whatever reason, and finally said "screw it" and here we are. I do hope that the story will be more easy on the eyes to read and all that compared to ff . net. I've been working on a novelization of the game for about four years now, if you can believe it. And I keep having new ideas and as my writing skills grow, I revise the story. But for this website, I will only post the final versions of the chapters because yeah. (I'm trying to get into the habit of only posting things once I'm completely happy with them haha.) I know that FFVI novelizations have been done over and over again, but I want to try my hand at it.  
> My dream is to finish this novelization someday, though it may be a long time since the story encompasses so much material. I really hope that this story is enjoyable to read. Thank you, everybody, for reading!  
> The first chapter title comes from a pastel drawing my best friend Fop made of Terra years ago titled "The Bird Who Pilots Magitek Armor." I may try to scan it in sometime if I can get the page to fit.

Narshe, a sleepy coal mining town tucked into the mountains above the Figaroan kingdom, was preparing for the oncoming night ahead. Men wrapped themselves up in their uniforms, with furs and wool scarves draped around their heads to keep in the warmth. Shopkeepers struck matches to light their gas lamps outside their shops, pulled their shutters to, and locked up for the night. Snow blew down from the mountains in a constant gust, sweeping over the buildings, and swirling in the streets. The citizens of Narshe had grown accustomed to the ever present chill and frost, and those new quickly adapted for the temperatures dropped drastically at night to well below freezing.

"Gods dammit! Why did we have to go somewhere so damn cold?" a man cried from his seat inside of the hulking contraption he piloted. His teeth would not stop chattering no matter how hard he tried to control it.

"We were ordered to invade, Wedge, deal with it. The Emperor would be furious if we disobeyed." His companion replied with a pointed look.

"I know that sir, but why couldn't that frozen esper have been dug up in a warm place? Like Jidoor?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because frozen things like the cold?" The higher ranking soldier pulled the bulletproof glass visor lower on his cockpit to help block the never ending assault from the snowstorm. "And Jidoor doesn't even have a coal mine."

"Whatever. So we're almost at Narshe, now what?" Wedge asked, shivering in his uniform, disregarding his higher-up's logic, and wishing the weapons developers could have installed heaters in the Magitek Armor Units.

"We go into the mines beyond the town and take the frozen creature," Vicks pushed his glasses up on his nose with a finger as he tried to ignore the chilly air the best he could.

On their ledge, they could see Narshe rather well. The gas lights lining the cobblestone streets looked like stars twinkling in the night, as if the sky was in front of their eyes instead of above them. Vicks looked back at the woman accompanying them; with her blank stare she almost looked like a corpse. A surge of unease ricocheted through his spine as her eyes glanced at him for a split second.

"How big is it? I hope we can carry it back to the ship, sir" Wedge asked, scratching his dark hair under his helmet, squinting at the town ahead.

"Well, it can't be too big. I mean if the ice shard was too large then the Emperor would have sent a crane or some other type of tek." Vicks patted his control panel with a sly grin in an attempt to drive away the disquiet, "Magitek Armor can lift a lot though, so we should be fine."

"Alright, alright! Let's get going," Wedge pulled ahead with a lurch and a few mutters about how he wished he could feel his toes again.

The woman followed him wordlessly, moving her Armor with a certain grace.

Vicks looked at the sky, at the fresh dark clouds coming in from the mountains like ink spreading in water, "You can't even see the moon for the storm clouds."

Up ahead, Wedge was trying to start a conversation with the young woman.

"So, why are you coming with us?" he asked, rubbing his hands together to create friction while he steered his Magitek Armor with his knee.

"I was ordered to," she replied in a monotonous voice, not even glancing over at him.

"Did they think that this mission would be dangerous?"

Silence.

"Is that a yes?" Wedge looked at her curiously.

"No," was her almost mechanic response.

"So the mission is not dangerous?"

Silence.

"Okay, well, what's that thing on your head?" he asked, pointing at the flecked jewels that caught the fading light from between locks of green hair.

"What do you mean?" The woman turned her head a fraction in his direction, but her eyes remained fixed on the speckled horizon.

Vicks came up next to Wedge, "That's a slave crown Cid's been developing. I know that you're a lower rung on the ladder, but I thought you'd know."

"A what?" Wedge scratched at his hair beneath his brown helmet, not even bothering to disguise his confusion.

"A slave crown. It's a device that rips away the wearer's free will, and makes them follow any orders given. I don't know much more than that, but that's what General Kefka told me during the briefing. She will follow any of our orders."

"But she's the Imperial Witch right? Shouldn't that mean that she's powerful enough to fight back? I mean, from what I've heard…" Wedge trailed off, his eyes moving to the thin form ahead of them pressing buttons on her control panel.

"She can't fight it, you idiot! That's the point of the slave crown, to have complete control over a person. Can you imagine what would happen if she didn't have that thing on her? She could torch the entire Empire and kill everybody." Vicks did not let his gaze settle on the witch as he spoke; instead he let it linger on the buildings that were much easier to make out by then.

Wedge looked at the witch again as if trying to make sure that she was not about to rear back and attack them, "Are you serious? That device is keeping her at bay?"

Vicks let out a sigh, "Yes, that's why the Emperor had the slave crown created. So she won't blow us all to bits."

The rumors had to be true if the Emperor had put a restraint on a young woman such as herself. It was inhumane, but had to be done, or else she would lose control. Or so they had been told.

"We'll be alright as long as the crown remains on her head. As long as she doesn't regain her free will, we will all live. That's what Kefka said, and why would he lie about such a serious thing?"

A look up let Vicks see the witch's form as she led them along. Her green hair that curled like a lamb's wool, her pale skin that hinted at how little sunlight she had seen, now rosy from the cold. It made Vicks cringe when he noticed how her thin frame shivered under her cloak.  
Despite her being the dangerous Imperial Witch the eyes of a doll, she was a pretty girl. A girl as young as she was should not have to endure that situation, not one who should be courting young men and enjoying her youth.

The group neared the gates of Narshe steadily. Vicks and Wedge both scanned the perimeters for any guns trained at their heads or for any ambushes coming down from the needle tree lines on either side of the town. The wind howled fiercely in their ears and the heavy footfalls of their Magitek Armor echoed into the night.

A building sat off to the left side of the gates with a man shrouded in scarves and furs leaning against the front window. He snapped his head up at the approaching sound of heavy metal footfalls, and scrambled inside. When the door slammed shut, Wedge could make out what the sign hanging above the door said as they passed it by.

"The library is outside of the town? Strange," he commented, scrunching his eyebrows together in thought.

Narshe guards stood at attention just inside the city gates with their rifles resting against their shoulders, all gaping at the oncoming small division of Magitek Armor. One guard in a darker uniform stepped forwards from the group, shouting, "What in goddess's name are Imperial troops doing here?"

"Don't answer any questions. Just take out any interlopers, we have a job to do," Vicks told his soldiers as they approached the gates.

Wedge nodded and pressed forwards, earning a bullet in the hull of his armor. It pinged off, not even making a dent as he rushed the guards. His hands flew over his control panel and in effect, his tek quickened its pace and snapped shut the glass dome.

"Stop this at once!" The leader of the guards demanded, firing another round at the oncoming machine.

"Narshe is neutral, you pigs!" Another guard shouted as he aimed his gun.

The Narshe men swung their spears and shot their guns, trying with all of their might to hold off the Imperial soldier who had pulled ahead of his comrades. None of their attacks did much damage, and upon realizing this they were being gunned down by a fire beam.

The tang of burning flesh filled the air, making Vicks wince as he reached the bloody smears on the cobblestones. Little bits of muscle, sinew, gore, and other unpleasant things were scattered across the gate entrance from where the guards were blasted.

The echo of a scream lingered in the frigid night air, sending chills dancing up and down their spines. Somehow, no matter how long one had been in the military, the sound of death was still unnerving in its finality.

Going north through the streets of Narshe, the party encountered more guards, who all protested to their presence, all trying to fight for their town, all dying painfully, equally. Vicks and Wedge watched as their companion in arms became the killing machine that Kefka had claimed her to be. She cast spell after spell at the Narshe guards, never ceasing in her assault. She fired her tek missiles without emotion, lay waste to lives with her charged up energy beams, and crushed bodies underneath her Magitek Armor.  
Luckily for the town, she only attacked those who attacked her, or else she could have easily leveled the place.

The voices of the men who had died haunted Vicks' and Wedge's minds, humming low and eventually started sounding like white noise coming from a malfunctioning radio.

_"Not even Narshe is safe anymore!"_

_"Please! Stop this! We haven't done a thing to the Empire!"_

_"You Imperial scum! We will not end up like Tzen!"_

_"The Empire is full of monsters! Don't taint us with your filth!"_

They reached the mines at long last, and found only one opening at the end of a long series of wooden steps littered with mining tools. Flurries of snow rushed inside the cavern from the strong winds, and disappeared into the darkness. What with the abandoned mining materials, rusty hooks knocked crooked that once held pick axes and other tools, and torches long blown out, the mine looked all the more menacing.

Wedge swallowed hard, staring into the depths, and said, "Sir, do you think that this is the mineshaft?"

"I'm not sure, Wedge, but it looks like our only option. Our informant told us that the creature was found in a new mine shaft. Do you see any other openings around here? I don't." Vicks gestured around them at the absence of any other mineshafts in the immediate area.

"Maybe we should have the witch lead us inside, she might know where to go better than we do," Wedge let out a shudder, his teeth clattering together from the chill.

"Alright, she'll be put on lead," Vicks made a motion forwards with his hand to the woman, who promptly pulled ahead of the men, waiting for another signal.

"Okay, let's get this over with!" Wedge tried sounding enthusiastic, and followed the mint haired sorceress inside.

Vicks felt his stomach flip and his heart beat quickened, as if his body sensed something he did not. He chalked it up to anxiety of the unknown, and punched a few buttons on his control panel, making his armor stomp inside the cavern.

"Dammit! The torches are out! Anybody have a light?" Wedge asked examining a burnt out torch while fingering his empty pockets as if a match would magically appear. Vicks shook his head after checking his pouches and the storage box near his feet, only finding medical supplies and some rations. They both looked to the mint haired witch who had been staring blankly at them, awaiting more commands.

"Do you think you could cast a little fire spell on this?" Wedge asked, moving closer as he held out the resinous wood for her to reach so she could set fire to it. She blinked as if processing the request, and held her left hand out to touch it. Then, a flame appeared in her palm, brilliantly orange and crackling, and caught the wood. As soon as the torch had a nice blaze burning, her spell went out with a little puff of smoke.  
Wedge smiled at her before he started lighting the torches hanging from old stands on the rock walls, watching the cavern gradually start growing brighter with flickering warm light. Shadows appeared, bobbing, and flitting across the rock flooring, casting strange and obscure shapes throughout the mineshaft.

Now that the small group could see where they were treading, the girl led them through a few short caves that were so narrow that they had to pass through in single file. Rats skittered across the ground, escaping the metallic footfalls and hiding themselves inside little nooks and crannies to chatter at the odd trespassers who were disturbing their peaceful home.

At the end of a long passage, there was a wooden gate barricading the next section of the mine. On the barricade were many complicated locks and gadgets to prevent intruders from getting into the next section.

"This must be where they're storing the creature," Vicks commented, inspecting the barrier for any locks that he recognized.

"Yeah, I've got an idea. You two move back a few yards!" Wedge instructed with a grin on his face. His companions did as he asked, and he moved his tek back away from the gate a bit, then rushed it, bashing the wooden planks to splinters from the force.

"Nice work, soldier," Vicks beamed, coming to stand beside his comrade.

"No problem! Like a measly little fence could keep us out."

As the soldiers were going inside the next room, a Narshe guard dashed out from behind a stone pillar roughly cut out of the bedrock.

"Stop right there! You aren't getting the esper that easily!" he yelled, brandishing his spear at the intruders.

"Move outta the way, or we'll go through you!" Wedge replied wryly.

The guard whipped a whistle out of his scarf and blew it. The piercing sound echoed shrilly off the cave walls.  
Then, an enormous pale yellow snail with mean red eyes at the top of his eye stalks slithered its way towards them at a pace that was much faster than common snails.

"Whelk! Defend the esper! Defend Narshe's pride!" the guard shouted as he ran out of the passage to get out of the way, and possibly alert the town elder of having to use their last defense.

"Shit! The bugger ran off!" Vicks cursed, realizing that they may have even more guardsmen after them.

"I think we have something more important to worry about now!" Wedge shouted, pushing buttons on his control panel furiously.

Vicks turned his tek towards the retreating guard and fired a bolt beam at him. The beam struck on target and the guard fell with a heavy thump on the ground.

" _At least we don't have to worry about him now."_ Vicks returned his attentions to the giant snail monster right as Wedge sent a fire beam at it.

The overgrown snail roared, eyes glowering more and more as it continued to slime its way closer. The attack did not hinder its progress as it came closer to the group.

"What's with this thing anyway? A giant snail? What will towns use next to protect them? Caterpillars?"

"This is the monster Kefka and Leo briefed us about, remember?" Vicks yelled over the bellowing creature.

Wedge shot another fire beam at the monster, "A creature that eats lightning, right?"

"Yeah! And it stores the energy in its shell, so don't hit that part, alright soldiers?"

The Imperial Witch fired a tek projectile at the snail in response, and Wedge gave a quick nod, before shooting another fire beam at it. The Whelk slammed itself into Vick's Magitek Armor, almost hurling the machine over backwards. As Vicks righted himself, he was astounded at how fluidly the magic user could maneuver her armor unit. She had the elegance of a bird in flight as her hands moved quickly over the buttons and levers.

The woman shot missiles over and over at the snail, never letting up, and finally with one more energy beam, the creature erupted all over the place. Yellow ooze splashed on to their machines, and dripped from the walls with pieces of shell skewed about.

"Ugh! Gross! Look at this!" Wedge cried, trying to fling some goo off of his arm.

"Forget that, you can get a bath back on the ship. Let's get the esper and get out of here," Vicks said, going past the despairing man, ignoring the fact that pungent snail slime was dripping from his hair and face.

By the time Vicks and Wedge reached the shard, they saw that their mint haired comrade was already there, standing in front of the ice, staring intently at the chilling creature.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Vicks asked, looking first at the woman, then up at the being. It had the shape of a large tropical bird, whose feathers were long, silky, and colorful. Its eyes were black, and unmoving, but a look of terror was filling its expression, as if it had tried to escape, fleeing from something terrible in flight, but was caught in ice.  
It was like a snapshot of the past, an old fossil drug up from the planet's crust, the emotion in its expression clear and crystalline.  
Wedge came up on the other side of the woman, now all three were looking up at the bird. The witch got out of her armor, and stepped closer, as if in a trance.

"What are you doing?" Vicks asked again, but received no response. The strange feeling inside of him grew, consuming his thoughts, and making fear rise up in his throat.

"Hey! You know something, don't you?" Wedge asked, trying to grab at the girl to keep her from the esper.

She started glowing with a strange blue light, and when they looked closer, they saw that the creature glowed in time with her, flashing a bright blue light that resembled lightning.  
As her fingers touched the ice, a spark of lightning fluttered out of the creature and into her head, causing her to emit a pained moan. She did not fall; instead she wrapped her arms around what she could of the ice, and pressed herself against it.

Then, lightning welled up again, and flashed into Wedge, blinking him out of existence.

"Wedge? Where did you go? What's happening?" Vicks screamed, clutching his head tightly, his heart beating frantically. Another bolt of lightning came out, and came at him faster than he could even think to move.

_"Some people are born to die."_

_"..."_

_"Child, it seems that something is preventing you to speak to me properly. But that is alright. I shall see you again...soon. I promise."_

She looked up at the esper's eyes, and saw that they were looking back, blinking, and speaking to her.

_"You're too weak for me now, but you will return to me soon. You're very special."_

Another bolt of electricity shot out of the ice shard and struck her between her cerulean eyes, hitting the slave crown, and then destroying her Magitek armor.

The bolt flitted up and down her body, knocking her back and on to the frigid ground below the esper.  
Her mind blanked out, body convulsing slightly, her eyes closed painfully, and for the first time in ages, she dreamed.


	2. Awakening

The screams and gunshots were heard all throughout Narshe. The sounds filled the citizens with a chilling fear that their town would finally be destroyed.

But when the rumbling footfalls retreated in the direction of the mines north of town, and no buildings were leveled, many townspeople ventured out of their homes to investigate the invasion. The men were armed with their best hunting rifles, and were quite jumpy when they heard anything that sounded like an explosion coming from the mines.

One middle aged man named Arvis stuck to his window panes with his small spyglass to survey the scene. He saw his fellow townspeople jump back when they came across the remains near the town gates. He cringed when the general store owner turned away from the bodies with a greenish hue to his face.

After an hour of watching and waiting, Arvis saw that the Imperials in their foreboding oversized suits of armor had not left the coal mining town. There was only one way out of the mines as of late, and unless the Imperials blasted holes in the side of the mountain to get out, they were still in the mines.

Something was keeping them, and judging from how easily and swiftly they entered Narshe; they should have returned to town by then.

Arvis was resolute, and went into his kitchen to grab his woolen coat and scarf. He slipped his spyglass into a pocket along with the black knife he used for hunting. Arvis went out the backdoor to avoid any unwanted eyes and climbed carefully down the wooden and stone platform behind the shop next door. His feet touched down behind one of the big brass and copper boilers that kept the town warm, and with a peek around the wheezing machine, Arvis was satisfied to set off into the mines.

He followed the carved out path of artificial steps and dodged the support beams jutting out of the rock walls from other mined out caverns, and found that the large footsteps left by the Magitek Armor in the snow went into the newest mineshaft at the end of the path.

Arvis had not been able to see the oddity the miners had unearthed because they cut off access to the public, and the prospect of seeing the rumored fossil made his heart pound like a hammer on damp cloth.

The mine was dimly lit by a few torches that threatened to snuff out at any time. Arvis picked his way along due to the tools that lay abandoned on the cave floor. He continued deeper into the mineshaft, avoiding the rats the best he could, and came to what was once a wooden gate.

Splintered wood lay on the ground. It was becoming harder for the man to see, but he heard the wood crunch under his boots. Farther along, he felt his boot slide on some sort of squishy substance.

"What on earth?" he wondered out loud to himself, squinting at the ground. He could barely make out slime left by something as he steadied himself from falling.

Frowning, he looked ahead, hoping to see a sign of life. Instead, he saw the esper encased in ice. It glowed softly, putting out a little light to see by.

Arvis could not draw his eyes away from the being as he approached. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, let alone anything he could imagine. It was drawing him in, telling something inside him to come closer. His nose burned from the cold and something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

_Look down._

He did, and saw a girl with a strange hair color shivering and unconscious on the ground just one step away.

"Oh! I almost stepped on you!" he exhaled, flustered from the strangeness of the situation. Without thinking, Arvis picked up the young woman, spotted a bag that looked like it belonged to her a few feet away, and with a last long look at the frozen esper, he hurried back to his house.

Once Arvis was back inside his home, he stamped his feet on the mat and carried the girl to his bed.

He laid her down on the mattress gently, being careful not to wake her with a start, and sat her bag on the floor near the bed.

"How extraordinary it is that you have green hair!" he chuckled, wondering aloud if it was dyed.

The girl did not let out a single noise of protest as he tucked her in. Her body shivered for a few minutes before it finally relaxed, and the redness of her nose and cheeks diminished soon. Her head drooped over on its side on the feather pillows, and something caught Arvis's eye.

It was shiny, with jewels that smoldered in the candlelight.

"What's this?" he touched the circlet tenderly, afraid he would break it if he handled it roughly.

"This cannot be comfortable to wear in bed," he said to the girl, deciding to slip it off for her. He removed the crown easily enough, and set it on the bedside table next to the candlesticks.

Something in his mind clicked; he knew what the circlet was. A sickening feeling washed over him upon realizing what the circlet was, and he swore under his breath. Arvis looked over at the circlet and saw that it seemed to grow more menacing the more he looked at it.

A groan came from the girl's mouth then, along with a grimace as she adjusted herself in her sleep. Arvis touched her forehead lightly, but retracted it with a jerk. His hand felt like he just stuck it on a boiling tea kettle.

"What on earth?" Arvis knelt down next to her and saw that her skin had drained of color and no drops of sweat beaded on her face.

The man jumped to his feet and went quickly to his writing desk in the living room. He unlocked it and started shuffling through papers until the letter he was looking for came into view. The letters were scrawled on the page roughly and confirmed his suspicions.

" _Arcell saw the girl we heard about from our contact in Albrook. She torched fifty Imperial soldiers within minutes under General Kefka's command."_

The girl lying in Arvis's bed had created a massacre of her fellow soldiers. She was the weapon that Gestahl had been keeping under lock and key.

Arvis went to brew some tea in the kitchen. She would need it when she woke up. He set out a pair of mugs on the kitchen table, all the while chuckling to himself. He was keeping an Imperial in his house, and he was going to offer her a cup of tea no less! Banon would have a laugh about it when he found out. But opportunities like this do not come along very often, and he must grab at them when he can.

"Excuse me, but where am I?" a soft whispery voice asked from behind Arvis, causing him to jump and nearly drop the sugar bowl on the hardwood floor. The girl stood in the doorway, eyes wide with fright and confusion as they darted from Arvis to objects around the room.

"Oh, you're finally awake!" Arvis smiled.

He gestured to a chair at the table, "Please sit down; I'm making some tea for us."

She moved stiffly with her arms wrapped around her chest and sat down. Arvis poured the tea for them both and sat a big steaming mug down in front of the girl.

"To answer your question, you are in the coal mining town called Narshe. My name is Arvis, and I found you in the mines unconscious." Arvis stirred some cream into his cup and tasted it with a spoon.

Her eyebrows knit together as she stared down at her mug without making a move to drink any of it.

"Do you know how I got here?" she cast her green eyes up to his face expectantly. She wanted to ask more, like why she woke up in his house, why her head hurt so badly, and most of all; she wanted to know why she couldn't recall a single thing from before she woke up.

"Do you not remember anything?" Arvis countered, his eyebrows rising up. He did not know what had passed in the mines, but it must have been pretty bad to affect her memory. Or perhaps her memory loss was a side effect of the slave crown.

The girl shook her head slowly but stopped after a moment, a look of realization appeared on her face.

"My name! I remember my name, it is Terra," she replied, her voice rising in volume slightly in her excitement.

"That's a wonderful name, Terra! I've never heard of somebody with amnesia recalling their name so quickly. You must be made of tougher stuff than most."

Terra felt a bit better now that she remembered her name and ventured a sip of the tea Arvis had sat in front of her. It had a smooth flavor, and almost immediately she knew what kind it was and that she liked it with cream and sugar.

"This is Figaroan black tea, isn't it?" she gingerly picked up the cream bowl and spooned some into her mug. Her back ached when she extended her arm, so she tried to move in such a way as to avoid making her hands shake from the pain.

"Indeed it is. My, you seem to be recovering pretty quickly." He pushed the sugar bowl towards Terra as she was reaching for it and stood from his seat.

"I think a bit of food is in order now. I bet you're famished, huh?" Terra nodded more vigorously than she meant to as Arvis went to the pantry and withdrew a loaf of bread.

Along with the bread he put out a bit of fresh butter, a jar of jam, and a hunk of white cheese on the table near Terra. He sliced her a few pieces of the bread and left her to eat as much as she pleased while he went into the other room.

He scribbled a few lines on to a sheet of paper explaining what had happened and tied it up neatly so he could send it off with a carrier pigeon once the coast was clear of guards and inquiring eyes. Arvis took a peek out of one of the front windows and saw sentries going from house to house.

" _So they finally caught on…"_ The man sighed and back into the bedroom to retrieve Terra's bag and the slave crown. While he was at it, he pulled the hunting knife from his pocket and got the light shield from the wall where it hung.

When he returned to the kitchen Terra was spreading butter on another piece of bread and cut herself a piece of cheese to go on top. As she chewed, her eyes followed Arvis as he went to his cupboards and pantries and stuffed food into a mauve travel bag.

"What are you doing?" she asked, and instantly wished that she hadn't been so nosy. She wasn't exactly sure why she thought that it would be nosy to ask such a thing, and took note to figure out why when she had the chance.

Arvis tucked some bread and apples in wax paper before putting them in the bag, "After you finish eating, you've got to leave. The guards are coming for you I'm afraid."

"What?"

"I don't have much time to explain, but you'll be okay. I'm sending a good friend of mine after you to keep you safe." Arvis sat the pack down on the table next to Terra's plate.

"But why are the guards after me? Did I steal something? Do I not have permission to be in this town?" she forgot all about her food and stood shakily, frightened at the prospect of being taken prisoner.

Arvis showed her the slave crown. At first she merely looked at it curiously, and even reached out to touch it, but withdrew her hand quickly as if she had been stung. Pain rushed into her sinuses and a cold voice floated into her mind. It made her want to run, cry, vomit, anything but be near that crown, and for the life of her, she had no idea why.

"This is a slave crown, Terra. You were an Imperial soldier for Emperor Gestahl, and he was using this crown to control you completely," Arvis put the crown on the counter and rubbed Terra's arm calmingly. She shrugged away, not wanting to be touched. She simply could not stop shaking.

From the other side of the front door came a sequence of hard knocks on the wood, "We know you're home Arvis! Give us the girl now! She's an officer of the Empire and we need to take her into custody!" Terra's head jerked in the direction of the door and cringed back. Everything was happening too fast. Wetness threatened to fall down her cheeks.

Arvis swore under his breath, "We gotta get you out of here earlier than I thought, Terra." He gave her a glass bottle filled with water and helped her put her pack on her slim shoulders. He pulled her into the bedroom and instructed her to put her boots on while he found a cloak to keep her warm. Once it was fastened in place and with knife and shield in hand, Arvis sent her out the backdoor.

"I'll keep these guys busy while you escape! Make your way through the mines. My friend will be along very soon!" and with that Terra was left alone in the alley behind Arvis's house deeply confused and frightened.

Terra staggered on the uneven ground, her boots slipping slightly on the icy path as she took a step. She blinked hard to adjust her vision in the dark alley.

"What did I do?" she wondered, putting a hand against the side of Arvis's house to keep her balance as she walked to the bridge at the end of the backstreet. Arvis hadn't told her much of anything other than she was being pursued. What had she done to these people to illicit such a violent and fervent response?

Her cloak, however warm it was being made of wool, was not enough to keep her from trembling. Her short skirt that stopped above her knees was not in any way suited for the chilling temperatures. Perhaps the dress was meant for warmer climates.

As she neared the end of Arvis' house, she could hear shouting inside, or rather, arguing.

"She is an officer of the Empire! She barreled through our town riding Magitek Armor!" a gruff voice roared.

_"Magitek Armor?"_ the words puzzled Terra further as she unintentionally stopped to listen for a moment. Those words made a feeling of disgust rise in her throat and conjured up flashes of what she assumed to be memories. The control panels that were cold to the touch, the loud thunking noise that came every time the machine took a step and the bright flames that issued out of a hole in the front of the machine. Each made Terra's stomach squirm around the food she had eaten only moments before, threatening to come back up.

More yelling issued from the house, making the hair of Terra's neck stand on end. She tried to ignore it as she continued on and reached the beginning of the bridge suspended on ropes. The planks of wood looked worn in some places, but she would try to avoid those when she came to them.

The green haired woman peered down at Narshe from around the corner, finding it to look like a pleasant place to live, despite the cold. She let out a teeth-chattering shiver, taking in the pale light from the street lamps, the chugging and grinding noises coming from the engines that let out puffs of steam, and the simple, yet handsome architecture. Narshe guards bustled around below in the streets, all soliciting houses, looking for her from what she could hear.

She had to hurry or else the time that Arvis bought her would be for nothing, so she took a timid step on to the bridge. Each step she took sounded ten times louder in her ears, as if the steps were signaling to the guards, "Up here! Look! She's here!"

Terra's heart pounded in her ears and her chest seized as she moved carefully across the planks of wood. A look down at the ground many, many yards below made her vision go double, so she avoided glancing down as much as she could. She neared the middle of the hanging bridge when a guard spotted her silhouette against the dark sky.

"Hey! There she is!" he shouted, pointing as his fellow guards ran to his side. Terra froze in place, her stomach flipped when she heard them clamoring below. _Oh no._

"Let's find a way up there, men!" another guard commanded. The men ran off to sound the alarm and gather the rest of the guards for pursuit.

Terra scurried across the remaining half of the bridge, not paying any attention to the rotten parts which gave away when trod on. She ran into the entrance of the mine, and did not stop until it became too dark for her to see past her own nose.

"Gosh, what do I do now?" she squeaked, panting as she leaned back against the rock wall behind her. Without a thought, Terra raised her left hand, focused for a second, and a small fire appeared in her palm. She attached her shield to her pack securely and tucked the hunting knife in one of the scarves tied around her waist.

"At least I can see where I'm going now. Which way should I go, though?" she wondered out loud, her voice echoing off the rocks. The flame she made helped her calm down as she decided to keep walking until the person Arvis said he would send arrived.

"If I stay put, those guards will find me quicker. Maybe I'll run into that person sometime soon..."

Terra went down a corridor with rats that skittered around her feet and torches that looked long burnt out on the walls. She kicked at the rats when they crossed her path, and eventually came to a small bridge that crossed a deep chasm in the ground.

When she got across the bridge, she came to a forked corridor that did not look like either one was a better choice than the other. Terra puzzled over which path to take when she heard voices coming from somewhere close by in the mines. The voices were magnified by the echoes, but sounded close enough that she could even hear footsteps coming closer on the ground.

She bolted down one path at random; her flame flickered wildly as she ran. Terra wished over and over for the help from Arvis to come sooner.

The voices grew louder the farther she went, and shadows appeared on the walls around a bend in the path.

"There she is! We found the bitch!" an older guard cried, issuing whoops of victory from his comrades.

"Come 'ere you little sorceress!" another guard raged, moving towards her aggressively with a spear in hand.

"No!" she cried, turning to run back the way she came, but found another throng of guards waiting for her. Terra shrieked as she was cornered, her legs shook as she backed up to the rock wall and her little flame went out with a puff of gray smoke.

Before the men could even grab her curly hair, the ground gave away with a deafening groan, sending Terra plummeting down to the level below. She landed on her knees, with her stomach and face following in painful succession. Rocks and debris showered down upon her back.

Cries of anger and disappointment floated into her ears as she tried moving, crawling a few feet forwards before the pain blossomed into her senses. Bubbles of darkness started flooding her vision as her body started issuing sparks of lime green light that bobbed in the air a moment before absorbing back into her. Her wounded limbs started healing as all of her energy was drained away from the strain of casting such spells.

Terra's body still cast her spells as her mind blanked out, and darkness took over.

_Fire enveloped her vision. The smell of scorched wood filled her nostrils as she rode past. The metallic clanking of her Magitek Armor rang out in the strangely quiet village. Dead bodies came into her view. Some were split in half, their insides spilling out into the dirt._

_Some were mangled so badly only their eyes remained the only part that was untouched. The corpses stared at her as she approached, and continued staring when she crushed their legs and chests with the leg structures of her armor. Blood flowed through the streets, mixing with the scent of smoke and made her cough in disgust._

_Everybody in the village was dead. And she was the cause. A man with a blond ponytail and face makeup pulled up beside her in his Magitek Armor, cackling at the carnage while she struggled with herself to scream. Nothing came from her mouth._

_"What a wonderful little killer you are, my dear! You slaughtered every sad little cockroach in this dumpy place in less than five minutes. That's a new record! The Emperor will certainly be pleased with you." the man snorted, looking at her like he would some delicacy._

_"Empy Gesty might even take that crown off of you for an evening! What's that look for?" he glared at her, frowning. Her face was contorted with grief and anger. She wanted to stop doing this. She wanted to be free._

_"Looks like good ole Doctor Cid will have to check that crown of yours. Maybe adjust it to make the effects stronger. We can't have you making faces and thinking, now can we?"_

As Terra drifted on the edge of her consciousness, hearing that high-pitched male voice echoing the words over and over until it finally dissolved. Tears ran from her eyes as she made a futile attempt to escape it, only to black out completely.

A group of moogles were foraging in the Narshe mines for food when they came upon a young woman, broken, on the ground. She was shivering slightly, her mint green hair was matted with dried blood, cuts and bruises covered her skin, and her breath came slowly and irregularly. The largest moogle, their leader, went to her side and patted her shoulder softly, as if comforting her. The other moogles joined him, all patting her with their stubby little fur covered paws.

"Kupo, kup, ku-ku!" the leader squeaked, his little violet wings fluttering as he spoke. His friends all hopped, drifting slowly back down to the ground due to their flapping wings, and scurried off to do as he requested. The large moogle remained and, nuzzled his face against the girl's hair in a parting gesture before scurrying off to find somebody to help her.

* * *

A knock came from the back door as Arvis paced in front of his roaring fireplace. He had just added fresh logs to the fire, and checked his pocket watch. It was about three in the morning, and it had been a couple of hours since he had last seen Terra. He had not heard any word from the town's citizens of the guards finding her, so she still had time. He went to let in who he hoped was his friend instead of another horde of the Narshe guards. The knock was quick and not thunderous like the ones his door received earlier on.

And upon seeing that the visitor was his comrade, he gave the boy a smack to the back of his head as he entered.

"Locke, you're late! Have you any idea what's been going on tonight?" Arvis fumed, stomping back into his sitting room, the younger man following behind him.

Locke scratched at his head, shrugged and handed Arvis a note that could not be trusted with carrier pigeons. The older man read it quickly, letting out a nasty curse.

"This is about a day late."

"Look, I'm sorry! Would you mind telling me what the hell's goin' on? Banon hands me that note yesterday and now you're not telling me what's happenin'. You people aren't good at explaining things," Locke huffed, shoving his hands into his dark blue jacket.

"The Empire sent Magitek Armored soldiers here to take the frozen esper. They killed many guards in the process, and now everybody's in a panic over whether they will attack again. Two of the soldiers haven't been found, yet, and one, a young woman, has escaped into the mines. I helped her and fed her before the remaining guards came to take her. They want to kill her and this is not her fault!" Arvis picked up the slave crown from the mantle and thrust it at Locke. The young man's eyes grew wide upon seeing the device.

"We have to help her, don't we?" Locke asked, still staring at the slave crown.

Arvis nodded, setting it back on the mantle.

"If you could take some time out of your plundering and thieving to go find her and take her to Figaro castle, everybody in the Returners would appreciate it."

"All right, I'll send word to you when I can," Locke replied, going back to the door to leave. As he was closing the door he called, "And I'm a treasure hunter! Sheesh!"

Arvis shook his head as he sat down to write yet another note to send to Banon.

* * *

"Thief my ass..." Locke grumbled as he strode into the mineshaft where the girl apparently escaped. Luckily for him, he was not spotted as he went across the bridge because the guards remaining at the town gates were too busy reinforcing it against another attack. He did not want get caught by the Narshe guards because they were still sore at him for "borrowing" their supplies without asking.

He took a matchbook out of his pocket, and struck a match to light up a torch. The fire light reached well enough for him to see a few yards ahead of him.

He followed the pathways in the caves, moving quickly to find her before the guards did.

"Gods, I can't believe we're helping a defected Imperial soldier. Kefka's old toy no less! I hope she stays defected…" he muttered to himself as he crossed a small bridge.

Something made scuffling noises behind him, causing Locke to turn sharply, anticipating a monster. He did not see anything but his own shadow flitting along the rock walls.

"I know I heard something..."

He shook his head, chalking it up to rats, and continued on his way with his ears trained on any sound that wasn't his own footsteps. Locke jumped when he heard the noises again, turning his head every which way to find the source, but never saw anything more than a rat chattering along the ground.

Unbeknownst to him, a moogle was following him around out of curiosity. The moogle thought that the strange man with bandanas tied around his head might be trying to find the girl who was wounded. After watching the man for a while and seeing that he was different from the loud men with spears and guns from earlier, the moogle let out a "kupo!" and hurried away to find his fellow moogles. They would be happy that he had found somebody to help so soon.

Locke came to a large hole in the ground that was still crumbling along the sides as if it had been formed very recently.

"Maybe she fell down there," he wondered, moving cautiously to the edge and tried shining some light into the darkness to see if he was right. He could not see a thing, much to his dismay.

"Looks like I'll have to get down there and see. This isn't gonna be good for my knees."

Without any hesitation, the thief dropped himself down the hole, bracing himself for the shock when he landed on his feet. Pain surged up his legs once his feet connected with the ground. He groaned painfully as he tried to straighten up.

"At least I didn't fall on my behind. Yeesh, that smarts!" he said, and noticed that his torch was still ablaze. He scanned the ground around him, seeing the large chunks of rock from the level above, the crumbles of dirt everywhere, and the mint haired young woman lying on her front at a somewhat awkward angle.

The thief went to her side quickly, checking the pulse in her neck, and was relieved to discover that her heartbeat was still going strong.

"She's only knocked out," he moved her gently over so that her legs were not in such a crumpled position. Locke recognized the part of the mine they were in, and remembered hiding out there during his youth.

"Well, let's get cha outta here before the dimwits show up!" he said to the unconscious woman as he started to try picking her up. He was a bit conflicted about the whole business, but she was helpless at the moment. And he figured that if she did try to get back to the Empire, at least he could stash her in Figaro. Figaro wouldn't try to execute her like Narshe would undoubtedly. They could learn a lot from the woman once she woke up.

Just then, the sound of boots clomping and angry male voices echoed throughout the cave.

"Oh shit."

"There's the Imperial Witch! Get her!" the leader of the guards commanded as he caught sight of Locke trying to pick her up.

"Great, they're all here," Locke spat sarcastically, setting the girl back down gently and put a hand over his dagger.

"Kupo!" came from behind him. He spun around, and saw a group of moogles all regarding at him with their wings flapping. The largest moogle came forwards with a spear in his little hand, and motioned Locke to the guards.

"Wha? You guys wanna help?"

All of the moogles wiggled their antennae and hopped in confirmation.

"Thanks! You guys came at the right time!"

A moogle shoved Locke back around to get him to focus on the guards who were advancing on them fast.

Narshe was one of the only major cities that trained the native monsters to fight for them, which made their defenses that much stronger. Other than the very harsh climate that Narshe rested in, the creatures were formidable in their own right. Wolf-like creatures with dark silver fur called lobos leaped and snarled as the moogles fought. Several moogles wielded spears and swords that came from who-knows-where attacked the lobos ferociously in return for the wolves clawing and biting them.

Locke joined a group of moogles that were fighting a large fur covered elephant that held control over blizzards. It cast its spell, causing needles of ice strike to the group, slashing and cutting into their flesh. One moogle jumped on top of the mammoth with his sword raised high before he brought it down hard into the back of the beast.

Two more moogles dashed forwards with their spears and started tearing into the mammoth where they could reach. Locke didn't want the moogles to have all of the fun, so he ran at the mammoth and started slicing at its face, making the beast cry out even more. It reared back on its hind legs, knocking the moogle riding it off, and fell on its side with a thundering crash.

"Great job!" Locke called to the moogles, giving them a thumbs-up as he ran to a Narshe guard that was coming up with his spear out, dodged the man's attack, and slit his throat as he slipped behind him. The thief snatched a tonic from the man's pocket as he fell, chugged it and put the empty bottle in his pocket as he went up against a group of five guards battling two moogles. One of the moogles threw a bladed boomerang at a guard, making him fall over bleeding.

Locke jumped on the closest guard and started stabbing his chest before the man could act. His comrades fell under the hands of the moogles, and soon there was only one enemy left: the guard Marshal.

As Locke was starting to go after the Marshal, the largest moogle pranced up to him almost innocently, ducked a swipe of his blade, and started dancing. The Narshe Marshal looked confused as the moogle danced around him, and a strange aura appeared. Then, boulders fell from the ceiling at an alarming rate, and they were all focused on the Marshal. The man screamed as he was squashed under the weight of the rocks, and the moogle finally stopped.

The thief's jaw dropped, eyes bulging at what he had just witnessed. The moogle scampered back to his friends like a cute little puppy, and squeaked, "Kupo kupo!"

The moogle all danced in victory for a moment, until a smaller one pointed back at the unconscious woman they had been protecting. Locke nodded at the moogles as he wiped his forehead.

He went back to the woman, picked her up bridal style, and called back to the creatures, "Thank you, moogles! I'm in your debt! You guys are amazing!"

They all hopped happily as Locke carried the girl through a path that went down a corridor with torches lit already, and down some stone steps. He reached the end of the path and sat the young woman down on the ground with her back against the wall. She started stirring when her body adjusted against the rock.

Locke went to work with a hidden switch he had made several years before, slipping his fingers into slight grooves in the wall and pressed against the small lever. A click came from the wall, signaling that it had been activated.

He saw that the woman he had just saved was rubbing her temples slowly with her eyes closed.

"You're back with us now?" he asked, causing her eyes to snap open. She trained her gaze on Locke's face unsteadily before wincing in pain.

"Uh, who are you?" she rubbed at her eyes next with bruised hands.

"Call me Locke. Arvis sent for me to help you. Luckily for both of us the moogles came in the nick of time to fend off the guards." Locke crouched down next to her.

"Oh! Thank you, Locke, I'm Terra," she replied, trying to stand up while supporting herself against the wall. Locke lent an arm to help her steady herself, which she took gratefully.

"That must have been a doozy, falling like that. Are you able to walk?" he asked, letting her keep his arm for support. She tried a step without any trouble, and nodded.

"I think I'm fine. I just feel really tired," she took another step and did not stumble like Locke thought she might.

"My head is spinning; can we rest here for a moment?" Terra requested, to which Locke nodded with a kind smile. Terra clutched her head with her free hand, sighing.

"Darn, I still can't remember anything..."

"What? You have amnesia?"

"That's what it's called? That man who helped me before, Arvis? He told me that my memory would come back in time," she looked at Locke meekly. He seemed to be distracted by a thought or something. Locke caught her gaze after a moment and shook his head of whatever was bothering him.

"Arvis is right. But don't you worry, Terra! I'll protect you until your memory returns. I promise, alright?" Locke told her, his eyes serious.

"We had better get out of here before anybody else comes after you, okay? Come on!" Locke grabbed her hand as he showed her his secret passage that led them outside of the town.

Terra felt some of her strength coming back as they walked, and soon did not need Locke's arm to lean on whenever she felt dizziness rushing back to her. Her bag bounced on her back and her cloak fluttered around her as the wind picked up and snow fell from the sky.

She was still very cold due to her clothing, but did not shiver as badly as she had before.

The duo descended down the mountain at a quick pace. Terra saw scrubby vegetation sprouting from the icy ground the farther down they went. She felt the names for the plants forming in her mind as they passed them by.

When the first tree appeared on the horizon, Locke ran to it and hopped up into its branches. Terra got to the tree and looked up to see him pulling a worn leather travel pack down from the foliage.

"What are you doing?"

"I had to hide my bag here because I didn't want to get slowed down by this thing. It's kinda heavy at times," he explained, settling the bag on his back and hopped down by Terra's side.

"I see. So, where are we going?" Terra finally thought to ask as they set off again down towards a heavily wooded valley.

"We're going to Figaro castle in the desert. Me and Arvis think that it will be a good place for us to hide for a few days. When I receive word from the Returners, then we'll go to the hideout."

"Wait, what are the Returners?" Terra felt curious, and slowed down her pace as she tried to process everything she was told.

"They're a resistance movement against the Empire. I'm Arvis's contact with the group. I bring him news and stuff like that." Locke slowed down to match Terra. The words just escaped his mouth before he could stop gabbing. He didn't mean to be so casual with his info. But Locke didn't feel like this woman would want to crawl back to the Empire anytime soon. His gut instincts were usually right in that sense…he hoped.

Terra did not say anything more, and continued on with Locke, deep in thought.

The Empire was looking for her. The Narshe guards wanted to kill her. And now the Returners seemed interested in her for whatever reason. If only she could remember more, then she wouldn't feel so confused about all that was going on. Where did she fit into all of it exactly?

The small party continued walking through the forests for the rest of that morning, stopping every now and then for a short rest because Terra was still rather weak.

The forests were calm that day, and the skies were clear, unlike in Narshe. Sunlight streamed down through the tree branches in bright beams where specks of pollen sparkled as they floated in the air. The ground was thick with dark green grasses, shrubs that were in bloom, and rich moss. Whenever Locke and Terra rested, Terra would sit down on a patch of spongy moss and run her fingers across it like it was a plush carpet. She would also relish the way her skin felt when the sun hit it. Her entire body warmed up and stayed at a cozy temperature.

Locke gave her a tonic to drink as they rested to help give her strength back. In return, Terra gave Locke a hunk of the white cheese and bread Arvis provided her with.

He thanked her and ate eagerly, "Haven't had cheese in a couple of weeks!" Terra nodded as she chewed a piece of bread slowly. She felt her energy returning slightly.

"We can have apples for supper tonight with some dried meat I've been saving," he explained between swallows. The thief stood and let her know where he was going for a moment. The girl took a long drink from her water bottle and waited for Locke to return from the bush a few yards away.

After they gathered their things and continued through the forest, an image floated into Terra's hazy mind. It was of a bright day in a field with high grasses and rows upon rows of soldiers in brown armor. They were marching swiftly in front of a flank of Magitek Armor. She was a pilot in one of the cockpits.

"Yoo-hoo, you alright there?" Locke's voice snapped her out of the scene in her head with a start.

"What's wrong? You look frightened," the thief touched her shoulder gingerly, and let his hand rest on her when she didn't draw away.

"I remembered something I think." Terra said evenly in her soft voice, her eyes trained on Locke's face.

"Oh?"

"I know what Magitek Armor is now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got its name from the song in the soundtrack. Thanks for reading!


	3. On The Run

The journey to Figaro castle was taking much longer than Locke intended or cared to admit freely. If it was just him, he'd be sprinting through the forests along the train tracks until he reached the desert sands and hitch a ride with a caravan on their way to the castle. He was inconspicuous looking enough to be forgotten promptly. Even with the spare bandana he tied around Terra's curly green hair, she stood out a lot.

For one thing, there was just too much of her hair to hide unless he chopped a good bit of it off, or snagged a set of desert traveler robes to cover her up completely. Her clothes were purely Vector garb, and that alone would set off alarm bells to the nomads who roamed the immense desert. People around these parts wore simpler fabrics without all the noisy patterns, and the girls certainly wore longer skirts if not for anything but the biting insects. The king would definitely appreciate her dress, but other, more conservative folk? Hell no.

And it was a whole other bucket of worms that anybody with a lick of sense could tell she was from the southern continent. Clothing styles were a dead giveaway anywhere up north, and the fact that hers were so…bright would illicit some bad responses when people put two and two together. The Empire was really starting to make some unhappy campers as of late.

So the young rogue led his charge of sorts along the tracks heading south for several hours, during which, she asked a few questions. Locke was happy that she had started talking more, and because it was no fun to travel in silence. Yes, he usually made up for that by yakking at himself when he was roughing it alone, but having company was a real treat.

"What's Figaro like?" Terra asked, walking more quickly to match Locke's longer stride. She recalled barely recognizable flashes of words on a page about the desert castle and trade routes through the sands.

Locke was more than happy to get into a long speech about how the castle was an oasis that any traveler could waltz into for refreshments and rest complete with his arms flapping excitedly as he spoke. "You'll get used to the noise of the big metal fans on top of the towers and the heat. The courtyard is actually very nice to walk 'round during the day. And the drinks are to die for!"

Terra tried to absorb all of the information Locke relayed to her in his sporadic fashion and organized it in her head. She should wait until it is past supper time to take a bath because by then the water won't scald her. They don't serve duck in the castle because they can never get a good fresh supply up from South Figaro before the birds lose their juiciness. And apparently, she shouldn't listen to a single thing that the king asks of her because he's a licentious ole git who needs a good kick in the pants pronto.

"Wait, what's a 'licentious ole git?' Is it dangerous?" Terra considered what she could remember in her faulty mind, and hoped that she could get ahold of something sturdier than the small hunting knife she acquired from Arvis. If she was going to be dealing with somebody who could potentially cause her harm, she'd feel better with a long sword that was freshly sharpened. Unbeknownst to her, she had uttered her thoughts out loud like Locke had the tendency to do, and caused the thief to break out in hysterical laughter.

Terra stared at Locke bewildered. She was not aware that her concerns were anything worth laughing at and furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to understand his amusement. Locke caught her befuddlement, and after laughing much more, to Terra's further dismay, he tried to stop.

"Nah, you didn't understand me, Ter! Eddy wouldn't hurt a green hair on your head!" Locke made a big show about getting his breathing back to normal in between left over chuckles. "I just meant that he might try to put the moves on you! He does with everybody. Man, woman, houseplant, nobody's safe!" Locke laughed some more as Terra puzzled over what he meant.

She was drawing up empty from her very tiny amount of world knowledge and the closest she could come up with had to do with fighting again, as far as "moves" went. She sighed softly and let her judgment fall to the wayside in favor of trusting Locke. Unless he was bent on handing her over to the Figaroan guard as soon as they arrived, she didn't have much choice because the fact of the matter was that she was alone and had a very spotty memory. And it didn't help her that she had no idea really where they were in the world. She had the feeling that even if she were in the area where the Empire supposedly kept her, she wouldn't know her way around much better there either.

Whoever this King Edgar was, he must have done something strange for a king to cause Locke to speak so poorly of him. Terra listened attentively as Locke continued telling her about how he'd get her in a nice bath to wash the twigs outta her hair. She hadn't even noticed the dirt or twigs within the past day or so, and felt compelled to search her curls for the suspects in question.

When a small cluster of trees came into view, Locke ushered her into them quickly before scaling the tallest one he could find. Terra watched silently from her place at the base as Locke retracted a strange device that he held up to his right eye. She decided to ask him if she could see it later during one of their rest stops.

She heard her companion hiss a curse to some fire goddess as he snapped his little device back to its original size.

"What do you see?" Terra hoped that it wasn't anything worse than a pack of monsters.

Locke clamored down from his perch and beckoned Terra to follow him in a new direction leading away from the railroad tracks.

"We've gotta get moving southwest on the double, Ter. I was hopin' we'd have more time following this route since it's the quickest, but it looks like we're flat outta luck." His demeanor changed as they hurried away from the trees and made for a path that led away from the mountain range.

Terra tried to keep up with his pace, and persisted with her question about what he saw. From the way Locke was acting, it had to be something much more serious than monsters.

The thief conceded and answered quickly as they continued on, "Okay, so we were following the tracks, right? That's the quickest way to the castle from Narshe because it's a straight cut south. But now it'll take us a few days to reach the castle instead of only a couple because we have to avoid the railways." He paused to take a draught from a water bottle he pulled out of his pack.

"I knew that we'd have to break off from that route anyways because the caravan people would recognize your clothes, ya know? And people really don't take kindly to the Empire, so you'd stick out like a sore thumb. But anyways, I saw Imperials at one of the train fueling stations."

"And they're looking for us, right?" Terra bit her lip.

"Bingo, so now we're taking a bit of a detour," Locke offered her his water bottle after glancing back at her. She accepted and took a swig of the surprisingly cool water.

Locke squared his shoulders and marched southwest at a pace much quicker than they had been traveling previously. Locke was not in the mood to deal with Imperial soldiers. He'd already had enough trouble with the guards back in Narshe and their nonsense.

"They're not following us, are they?" Terra's whispery voice floated up to his ears as she trotted up to his side.

"Not from what I could see. They were sending soldiers on chocobos north and south along the tracks. But there could be spies out our way." He kept his eyes peeled for any tell-tale signs of Imperial Special Ops as the high prairie grasses rose all around them as the trees finally gave way. Locke wasn't happy about traveling out in the open like this with Imperials creeping around.

Terra had to jog to keep up with Locke's pace, and tried to remember anything at all from her past that could be useful. Again, she drew up nearly empty from the small well of her mind.

"Is there anything I can help keep an eye out for, Locke? All I can remember is the sound of Magitek Armor walking." Locke considered her for a moment. Then he scanned the meadows around them briefly for any odd trails through the grasses or for the absence of animal and insect sounds.

"Pay attention to the sounds around us, for one thing. If there's one thing that's been consistent with these jokers, it's that birds and insects are quiet when a Heavy's around. Though, I doubt that they'd bring a Heavy out on a scouting mission looking for a couple travelers." And yet, the Empire sent three sets of Magitek Armor out to raid Narshe. He pushed that from his mind sternly. Surely the Emperor wouldn't make that choice again, would he? The game was changing for them, that was for sure.

Locke looked down at Terra again and continued, "Always be aware of what's around us. If you notice anything off at all, sure enough, your gut's telling you something." Terra nodded seriously at this.

"Don't worry too much about it though, Ter. Just stick by me and you'll be fine!" he ruffled her ponytail playfully.

But to Terra, Locke's good mood seemed to have vanished when he discovered the Imperials at the train station. They went along in quiet for the next few hours, both listening for anything out of the ordinary. She couldn't stop herself from looking behind them every few moments out of fear of a troupe of soldiers charging them down. None came, fortunately, but Locke's shoulders remained rigid, and his joking stopped.

Their rest stops were much shorter now too, and much of the time, Locke refused to sit in favor of pacing back and forth while he ate his apple.

The sun was near setting before they stopped for any considerable length of time. Terra was growing weary as she sat in the somewhat scratchy grasses.

"You can go ahead and sleep for awhile. I'll keep watch," Locke offered with a smile. Terra accepted and wrapped her cloak around her like a blanket as she lay down. She sat her pack under her head as a pillow and fell asleep much quicker than she anticipated.

_Her eyes were trained on the ground before her red polished boots. Goose bumps rose on her bare shoulders from the cool breeze snaking its way through the yard. Towering steel buildings rose up all around her._

_A white gloved hand guided her up the metal stairs to the platform where she was led to a spot well behind the balcony. The hand gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze before its owner retreated to his place at the Emperor's side. The Emperor was dressed in black and red ornate dress robes of his office. His gray hair spilled down his shoulders in waves, and his voice boomed all around her as he addressed the soldiers below in their neat lines organized by rank and height._

" _We are witnesses to a new age of wisdom! Under our new Empire, all will prosper!"_

_His voice was convincing and full of passion. The man with the white gloves and white blond hair pulled back tightly cheered with the soldiers. The woman on the Emperor's other side remained motionless._

" _This power is ours and ours alone! We must lead the world into this new age! The age of magic is upon us!"_

_The woman turned her head to the side slightly, enough to look at her steadily, before turning back and punching the air with her fist as she cheered with the crowd._

_The cheers and shouts crashed around her again and again, swallowing her up in the sound._

"Wakey-wakey, kiddo. We gotta get a move on," Locke shook her arm gently before setting a slice of dried meat in her hand. He went to busy himself with packing up their stuff as Terra opened her eyes with a yawn. The sounds from her dream faded away before she could be troubled to worry over them.

The sky was dark and the moon was riding up to the middle of the open skies. She slapped at a biting insect with her free hand.

"How long did I sleep?"

"Not too long. Only three hours or so." Locke heaved his pack onto his shoulders with a grunt.

"What about you? Don't you feel tired?" She stuck the dried meat between her teeth as she strapped her bag to her back and stood up on legs that didn't quite want to wake up yet. The thief shook his head, chalking it up to feeling a bit antsy.

Terra wanted to press the issue further because she could surely keep an eye out for creeping Imperials while Locke rested, but he hurried off so quickly that she had no choice but to follow. Perhaps Locke was much more worried than he was letting on.

The pair walked briskly for several hours without stopping. Finally, they came to another copse of trees that hid the moon and stars from view completely.

Terra was too winded to notice how mushy the ground beneath her feet was, nor that the thicket was strangely quiet.

"Want some bread?" she slung her pack down on a flat stone and started digging around for her water bottle. Locke didn't answer her. She looked up and felt cold rush through her limbs. He was standing completely still, listening, with his muscles coiled, ready for something.

Without a word, Locke turned on his heel and grabbed Terra's arm as he went, dragging her along back out of the thicket. Terra snatched her bag as they went and had the feeling that asking questions wouldn't do at the moment.

He broke out into a dead run while still holding on to Terra, and led them away from the forest just in time to miss the gunshots. Somehow, she could see the bullets sent in their direction, and whoever was firing them kept missing.

Then, out of the darkness came the barking and the heavy boot falls of the Imperials chasing them.

Words on a yellowed page floated to the surface of her mind. The Empire transfused their trained war hounds with some strange substance. She couldn't recall what the injection was. But she knew that it made them stronger and faster and more vicious than any normal hound could be.

She looked back, and really wished that she didn't. The hounds were gaining on them with a hungry gleam in their black eyes. They would be caught if she didn't do something to stop them. The Imperials might keep the dogs from injuring her fatally, but they would probably let them have at Locke.

Locke wouldn't be able to hold them off with only his dagger, no matter how skilled he was with it, especially against four opponents. Terra had to do something.

"Locke, wait!" Terra cried, yanking her arm away from him as she stopped running.

"Like hell, I will! C'mon Ter!" he made a grab for her hand. She shrugged him off and turned to face the soldiers and dogs.

Heat gathered in her palms, and she let it fly in a great pillar of flame. The Imperials' screams carried through the night air along with the dogs' snarls. But these too soon died out as her fire crackled and licked at the sky.

Once she was finished with her spell, Terra slumped down to her knees in the high grasses. She was much more tired now. She dug through her bag and found her water, and drank very deeply from it.

With a sigh, she turned to see what Locke had done with himself, and saw him standing rooted to the spot, his jaw slack.

His mouth worked noiselessly as he looked from Terra to the fire that still burned quietly without spreading in the prairie grasses. Locke's mind reeled as what he had just witnessed hit him like a wave. Terra could do magic. That fire was certainly not from Magitek Armor, or a lantern, or matches, or anything. It came from her hands.

Rushing up to her, Locke grabbed her hands to inspect them for traces of some gizmo or white blisters.

"Ah, Locke, you made me drop my bottle." Terra protested. Her bottle had fallen on its side and spilled its contents into the grass.

But the thief didn't hear her. He was too focused on trying to figure out how she had managed to roast two Imperials and a pair of war hounds. It couldn't have been magic. That was preposterous! Magic hasn't existed in over one thousand years!

"Locke, are you alright?" she asked with worried eyes. Locke had been muttering to himself as he examined her hands front and back and between her fingers.

"Terra, was that magic?" he asked breathlessly, bringing his eyes up to meet hers. Terra stammered that it came naturally to her and that she wouldn't hurt him, she promised. It was just something that she could do, she went on, and that she could use it to help them.

Locke's face softened as she stumbled over her words and looked almost teary. But he couldn't help the giggle that bubbled out of his throat. Terra fixed him a flummoxed look as water threatened to fall down her cheeks.

"Gods, that was amazing! Magic! Who knew this one could be so rearin' with firepower!" Locke shook his head as he kept chortling to himself.

"Wait'll Ed hears about this! Oh boy," the thief stood then, pulling Terra with him.

"What was so funny about this?" Terra asked, wondering if Locke had taken a bullet to the head or something along those lines. The firelight increased the shadows on his face when he turned to face her.

"I've just never seen magic before, is all, Ter! It's a bit of a surprise for a guy who's only heard of that kinda stuff in fairy tales, ya know?" Locke gave her a pat on the shoulder and thanked her for taking care of the soldiers. She nodded and ventured a few steps forwards before finding that doing so made her head swim.

She stumbled into Locke's side, "Woah there, you alright?" She grabbed at her head and tried to stand up without tumbling down to her knees again. Terra swayed unsteadily on her feet. Locke offered her his arm as he helped steady her. She leaned on him heavily and wished that she hadn't used up so much energy so quickly.

"I guess that kinda power takes a lot outta you, eh?" without bothering to ask, Locke heaved Terra up onto his back and secured her hands around his neck. The girl was too exhausted to object to riding on his back, and let herself slump against his jacket.

Terra mumbled an agreement to his question. Locke started walking away from the blazing bodies and judged by the descending moon which direction to take.

The thief's earlier good mood seemed to blossom back with a vengeance as he asked her questions about her powers and talked about how useful it must be to be magical. Instead of being put off by her abnormality, Locke accepted it.

"I mean gosh, Ter, my ole Nan used to tell me stories about magical creatures that lived alongside humans all the time when I was a kid. To think that I'd meet somebody who can do those things!" he turned his face to look at her with a boyish grin.

"Man, you look pooped! I'll let you down once we've gotten a few miles away from those sneaks. Bet we both could do with a bit of dinner." Terra was content to listen to Locke's jabbering as her mind rocked to and fro like wine in a glass. Locke didn't seem to mind Terra's lull in answering him because he would just continue talking excitedly about the legends of the War of the Magi and of the otherworldly creatures called "Espers."

After many fairy stories and ideas on how her fire magic would be useful on the road _(No more dealing with wet matches!),_ Locke sat Terra down in the grass carefully as the moon sank below the horizon line. Terra looked around bleary eyed, and saw that they were near the banks of a stream that cut through the tall grasses. Thin trunked trees grew with their roots anchored in the stream bed, and smooth gray stones were clustered around the edge of the waters.

Locke slipped his bag off into the grass next to her and started rummaging around in it in a messy fashion. Items fell from the main opening of the bag as well as smaller trinkets that tumbled out of the many pockets seemingly patched on the outside of the pack. The thief extracted three empty glass bottles and clamored down to the water with a splash.

He rinsed out the bottles and filled them up fresh in the cool stream. Terra, meanwhile, fought the urge to examine Locke's belongings as she stuck them back into his bag neatly. Her companion carried a lot of odd little knick knacks with him in his travels, like a roll of leather with a strap that held it together and the collapsible device she saw him using the day before.

He returned laden with water, and handed Terra a round shaped bottle.

"Drink up while you can! We'll be at the desert tomorrow, looks like." Locke sat down heavily in front of her with his back to the stream. He uncorked a rectangular flagon and took a few big gulps from it with a satisfied sigh.

"I thought you said that it would take us longer now that we aren't near the railway," Terra sipped from her bottle thoughtfully.

"Well, that's what I thought, but it looks like we made exceptional time with the extra walking I did last night. This stream is a marker I keep track with, and I'd say that if we go the rest of today, we'd make the last fourteen miles before tomorrow. I did have a map here somewhere, but it must've run off on me." He smiled wryly at his bag as if it had something to do with the missing map.

Terra excused herself to go alleviate her heavy bladder and hurried off to a private spot behind some of the thin trees. When she came back, Locke was slicing up an apple and offered her half of them when she sat down in her previous spot. She pulled out the last hunk of white cheese and bread and ripped them in half on the bandanna she pulled off of her head for a plate. She sat Locke's share in front of him on the bandanna and drew her hunting knife from the folds of her scarves on her waist to slice up her bread. Before she could start cutting Locke's up for him, she saw that the man had practically inhaled his food and was already trying to cram an apple slice in his mouth. Terra shook her head, amused, and savored each bite of her meal slowly.

After they finished their meals, Locke was bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting for Terra to finish packing up her things so they could get a move on.

"How can you have so much energy after carrying me last night?" she asked as she pulled her bag straps over her arms and secured her cloak in place on her shoulders. She noted that she would have to tuck the wool cloak into her pack once they reached the desert so she didn't die of heat stroke.

The thief winked at her devilishly and produced a cut glass vial from somewhere on his person that her eyes were too slow to see. The vial seemed to appear into existence in his left hand, which made Terra wary of what else Locke was hiding in those bandannas and belt pouches.

He flicked the top off the glass and upturned it into his throat with a showy swig, "This little guy'll keep me going for another few days without sleep!" He tossed the vial to Terra lazily once he fastened the cap back into place. She caught it on reflex and turned the vial over in her hand. Silvery letters were painted onto one side of the glass, and she had to reflect it in the sun to make out what they said.

"I thought that elixirs were extremely rare, Locke," Terra went after him doggedly, though her temples ached from the exertion of keeping pace with her companion. The effects of her magic usage were still seizing at her with prickly arms.

He cocked an eyebrow down at her, "Looks like somebody's recovering her memory pretty well!" Terra merely nodded, and said under her breath that her past wasn't coming to her much at all. Only trivial things like what elixirs are and how to use Imperial rifles. Locke chuckled at her consternation and clapped her on the back.

"It's better than nothing, I'd say! Anyways, I found that elixir in the weirdest place too. It was shoved into a grandfather clock behind the first panel." At the interested and questioning look he received, Locke continued on to explain about how he had first accidentally found such rare cocktails hidden away in old clay urns and the like. Ever since, the rogue had checked every single place he could, when he had the time and opportunity, because people, rich people especially, liked to hide their valuables in "unlikely" places.

Then Locke went on into a long rant that took the entire morning about how rich people tended to think alike and how he had found dozens and dozens of valuables in the most bizarre hiding places. This rant would drift off onto tangents about picking locks, which Locke accentuated with showing Terra a tool roll he kept in his bag with long slivers of iron and bits of old keys he's had to fashion himself for specific lock types he's run into over the years. The tool roll was the bundle of leather that Terra had seen earlier before they ate their breakfast.

But of course, Locke didn't always have access to his leather roll, so he stuck some of his lock picks around his person just in case.

The day was a very mild, if dry and windy one, and Terra was so engrossed in learning how Locke had made his lock picks and hearing his stories that the hours slipped by without caution. Before they knew it, they had crossed a good deal of the remaining meadow between the Narshe mountain ranges.

Her heaviness of mind and limb had subsided, to her surprise, and she felt the familiar energy in her body that was her magic. Before, it was weaker and hard to draw on due to her high level spell.

The pair did not run into anymore Imperial scouts or war hounds, and hoped that they would not see any traipsing around the sand dunes.

As if to underline this hope, Locke and Terra set off immediately after taking a short break a few miles from the beginning of the desert sands. Terra made a move to take her cloak off, but Locke stopped her.

"You'd be better off leaving that cape on. It gets chilly at night in the desert." She complied and left her cloak clasp alone for the time being.

"Hopefully, we'll get to the castle by morning so we don't have to walk around in the bleedin' sun! There's nothing worse than having to go on foot in the middle of the desert with sand blowing in your face and scratching your eyes all to hell," Locke prattled on. Terra could not recall ever having been in the desert before, and intended on examining all that she could see and committing it to her memory.

Soon, as they walked on southwestwards, the grasses of the meadows gave way to more scrubby vegetation and stones. Instead of plants with broad leaves, the outskirts of the great desert had plants with leaves that resembled needles. The air became drier and cooler as they went on, and eventually, they spied the first immense sand dune on the horizon partially hidden by large dusty gray and brown rocks.

Encouraged by their speedy progress, Locke grabbed Terra's hand and ran to the stones and helped her climb up the rocks safely.

From there, they climbed carefully up to the crest of the dune and rested for a few moments. They shared water back and forth to wet their dry throats before beginning the last leg of their journey to the castle.

There was an art to scaling up and down sand dunes taller than village cottages, and Terra learned it the hard way. At least once on her way up or down a dune, she skidded to her knees, lost her footing and fell backwards, and had to rely on Locke's hand or arm to make it securely over. Hours passed in this way as the half-moon rose in the chilly night air.

The skies were clear and the stars twinkled brightly above, and whenever she could, Terra would try to pick out the constellations that Locke had pointed at and described for her. She particularly liked the star pattern called "the Charging Behemoth."

Locke gave Terra a tonic from one of his side pouches when he noticed her slowing movements, despite her not complaining of being tired. The liquid fizzed in her esophagus and made her cough from the sensation.

She covered her mouth to cough once more, and felt the tonic working as it spread through her middle, "Thanks, Locke." Her companion had gone up to the apex of the next dune, and let out a hearty laugh.

"You're going to thank me again once you get your skinny self up here!" he called down, waving his hands in the air, beckoning her to climb up after him. Terra slowly picked her way up the dune successfully without sliding off sideways, and immediately understood Locke's meaning.

The castle was massive, to say the least.

It rose up out of the desert sands with its banners high on the towers, snapping in the wind. From their vantage point, Terra could see tiny green clad figures moving along the battlements, and more figures rode on chocobo-back on the ground around the fortress. The large gates pulled up for a caravan pulled by two brown chocobos and was lowered once more as they disappeared into the gatehouse.

Locke clasped Terra's left hand with a grin and pulled her down the dune after him, running pell-mell straight to the castle gates.


	4. Desert Sands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! This chapter took quite a long time to write and revise, but it was very fun. I know that this is a very big update/chapter, but I felt that the story would flow better to have all of this compiled into one chapter instead of breaking it up. I hope you all enjoy reading!

**Looking Down From Cerulean Skies**

 

 

**Desert Sands**

 

Morning spread out over the dunes slowly when Locke and Terra made it at long last to the Figaro castle gates. The moon had fallen down below the horizon line, and the sky was pale and gradually grew brighter as the sun caught up with them.

Several yards away from the intimidating wrought iron gates, Locke brushed sand from his clothes with quick motions before turning on Terra to assault her bandana and dress.

"Gotta look a bit more spiffy or else the maids will outright attack you, kiddo." His eyes glinted with amusement as Terra put up with him fussing over her clothes with her mouth tight. She wondered if he had to endure being "attacked" by a legion of maids once before.

"Don't say much until we get to the throne room, okay?" Locke murmured in her ear as he wrapped his hand around hers. They walked up to the gates slowly and waited to be acknowledged by the Figaroan guard.

As if on cue, a strong jawed man strode up to the pair on his chocobo with a mug of something hot in one of his leather gloved hands.

 "State your business," the guard declared, his eyes glued to Terra.

 "I have business with his grace, the king." Locke replied.

"And this one?" the guard gestured at Terra as he spoke.

"She is my ward, sir."

The guard took a swig from his steaming mug, eyed them some more, and waved his free hand to the men on the battlements above. Then, the heavy gates swung up with a loud grinding noise that Terra was surprised couldn't be heard when the caravan went through before them earlier.

"Proceed, I'll send word to his grace."

Locke nodded and pulled Terra along into the gatehouse just inside the castle. The entryway was large enough to accommodate several hundred people, and tall enough to allow high topped caravans and wagons to enter without getting stuck.

There were four circular stairways leading up to the top of the gates, two on each side of the large room, and several doors leading to who-knew-where. Terra wanted to see where these doors led, but Locke kept walking through the gatehouse at a swift pace.

 A set of tall wooden doors at the end of the gatehouse led to a courtyard with merchant stalls being set up for the day along the walls. Even though it was still early in the day, there were people milling around with shopping baskets haggling over the prices of fruits and meats.

"Must have been a new guard captain, pah." Locke grumbled under his breath, heading towards the opposite wall where another set of double doors lay.

"Do the guards normally not act that way towards you?" asked Terra, unable to keep her eyes off the merchants setting up their stalls with embroidered fabrics and shiny trinkets.

Locke looked down at Terra, "Not usually. The main gates are normally thrown open for all to enter. Yeah, the guards keep an eye on people, especially dodgey lookin' ones. But I'm a face they see nearly every few weeks." He paused to open the door for Terra, and resumed talking once they were past the pair of guards standing at the entrance.

They were now in a long corridor with many side halls splitting off into different directions. Locke led her straight down the main hall which was lined with antique looking suits of armor in varying styles.

"So either that guy was a newbie, or Edgar's gotten wind of something brewing. With all that's been happening as of late, I'd bet my jacket it's the latter."

Locke’s suspicions caused a wave of worry to rise up in her throat. Maybe King Edgar heard about the Imperial soldiers patrolling the valley between the Narshe mountain ranges. She hoped that the king wouldn’t turn her over to the Empire.

Without paying any attention to where they were headed, Terra blinked and suddenly found herself outside of what had to be the throne room. Locke stopped a few paces away from the intricately carved marble doors flanked by guards in full armor with crossbows strapped to their backs and spears in their hands.

Locke leaned down to whisper in Terra’s ear, “Don’t you worry about a thing, okay? Edgar’s a good guy.”

“Alright,” Terra replied, though wary of what was to come. Locke’s warnings of the king when they were traveling echoed in her mind.

“’Scuse me sirs,” Locke addressed the guards, “Can you request an audience with the king for me?”

The guard to the left came to life with a thin smile that vanished as he went into the throne room for a few moments. Muffled speaking could barely be heard outside of the marble doors, and within another moment, the sentinel returned.

“His grace will see you now, Mr. Cole,” he held the door open for Locke and Terra, and carefully closed it behind them.

The walls were lofty and had tapestries depicting battles scenes, portraits, and what she assumed to be the Figaro flag sewn into the thick fabrics. Stained glass windows rested near the smooth ceiling, and gave the room a warm feeling as sunlight filtered down into reds and greens on the gray stone floor.

A narrow red carpet ran the length of the room and ended at a pair of thrones on a raised dais. Four more guards stood along the walls of the room at attention.

Both gold embellished thrones were empty, and upon realizing this, Terra shifted her gaze downwards a bit before noticing the man sitting on the short steps leading to the thrones. In his hands was a little hunk of metal with cogs and gears on the surface and a long screwdriver, and he was seeming to ignore the oil dripping from the thing onto his finely tailored black trousers. 

The blond man looked up from his tinkering at the sound of the door shutting and gave the pair a big smile.

“Edgar! How’s it goin’?” Locke called, releasing Terra’s hand in favor of jogging up to the king.

“You’re lucky you showed up when you did, or else you would have had to wait while I finished up repairs down in the engine room.” The king rose and stretched like a cat with his hands high above his head. He sat his bit of machine and tool down on the step before pulling the thief into a tight hug that nearly hauled Locke off his feet.

From over Locke’s shoulder, Edgar saw Terra silently approaching. Edgar motioned for his guards to leave the room with his hand.

“Would this be the young woman I’ve heard so much about?” he asked, to which Locke nodded as he pulled away from the embrace.

“Edgar, this is Terra.” Locke gestured to her as he spoke.

Before Terra could speak, Edgar dropped to one knee and took her right hand gently in his, “My lady, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I am King Edgar of Figaro, and I offer you my castle as refuge.” He accented his little speech with a kiss to the back of her hand before rising from his knee. She did not notice Locke stifling a giggle at this display.

“Thank you, your grace,” she replied, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice. Her worries of being thrown into a dungeon faded after receiving such a cordial greeting. Surely a king wouldn’t throw somebody into the dungeon right after kissing their hand.

_“I wonder if it’s normal for a king to drop to his knee for a lady…”_

The king still held her hand as Locke moved to remove Terra’s bandana from her hair.  
“Hey, Locke, don’t-“ Terra protested for fear of the king reacting negatively. But Locke’s hands undid the knot quickly and he plucked the bandana from her head.

Edgar’s dark blue eyes widened upon seeing her hair as it flopped back to where the curls naturally rested, but instead of the reaction she had expected, he took a curl from the long bangs framing her face and examined it in awe.

“Arcell wasn’t kidding…” he breathed so low that she could barely hear the words.

“Yep, she’s the real deal, Eddy.”

Edgar dropped her lock of hair and hand, and put his hands behind his back as he took a few steps away, “So, you’re an Imperial soldier? Worry not! My kingdom and the Empire are allies.” His demeanor changed so abruptly that Terra blinked hard a couple of times to be sure that she was still looking at the same tall, golden blond king from before. He was now all business as he whispered something to Locke with a sidelong glance at her.

Locke nodded briefly and grabbed Terra’s hand, “Well, now that introductions are outta the way, how’s about you and me go find some grub?” Terra nodded vigorously despite herself.

Losing his air of all business, Edgar stepped closer again, “I think that was an enthusiastic ‘yes,’ Locke. I’ll join you two as well. Breakfast should be ready by now.” Terra gave Edgar a sheepish smile as she agreed to their plan.

Edgar flipped his long ribboned ponytail over his shoulder and offered Terra his arm as the trio set off down to the double doors.

“Perhaps eating in the private dining room would be best for us. What do you think, Locke?” the king opened the door for them with his free hand and led the way into the grand hall.

“Yeah, we have some things we need to discuss, Kingy.”

The group made their way amiably down a side hall adorned with handsome portraits of who had to have been past rulers, and through a set of red velvet curtains in a small alcove. The passageway concealed behind the curtains was dark and narrow, and the ceiling was low enough that Edgar had to crouch down to avoid bumping his head. Terra stuck close to Edgar and Locke as they walked in silence, but they soon came to a wooden door that Terra would have missed if she was wandering the passage on her own. The king opened the door to reveal a room which looked very comfortable.

There was a brightly lit chandelier hanging from the ceiling above the long wooden table, and more crimson tapestries hung from the stone walls around the room. Edgar detached from Terra to pull on a rope which hung down from a pulley in the corner.

Within moments, servants appeared before them in a line and bowed deeply before the king.

“Good morning, my king. What would you and your guests prefer to dine on this fine morning?” An elderly butler inquired, stepping forward with another bow.

“Bring out anything at all! Perhaps a bit of everything fit for breakfast so that my guests can take their pick.” Edgar replied brightly. The servants bowed again and hurried off into a side entrance to the kitchens.

“What was that hall we just came out of?” Terra asked, eyeing the door behind them curiously. She saw other doors in the room too, and wondered where they all led.

“That was just a quicker way to this dining room, my dear. I thought it would be best to be speedy, for you and Locke must be famished after all of that traveling you’ve done.” Edgar replied with a wide smile as he went to a cushioned chair at the table. Locke went around to the other side so that he could take a seat opposite the king, and Terra did the same and sat down to Locke’s left.

Terra picked up a tall glass at her place and inspected it as her companions started talking. There were three different lengths of forks on one side of her plate, and she tried to remember if there was supposed to be any significance to this.

Edgar’s tone, however, drew Terra out of her thoughts, “So, my reports from the scouts were correct. The Imperials are still in the area.”

“Yep,” was Locke’s reply, “Terra took down two men and their war hounds when they tried to ambush us in the marsh one night.”

“Oh really? How so?” Edgar turned to look at Terra, waiting politely for her explanation as he folded his hands in front of him on the table.

Her fingers played with a spoon and her eyes remained down, “I set them on fire.”

Edgar’s eyebrows rose, “Did you happen to throw a lantern at them?”

Terra shook her head, and with a glance at Locke, who was giving her an encouraging smile, said, “No, I cast a spell on them. They would have caught up with us otherwise, so I had to use my magic.” First Locke exposed her odd hair color to the king, and now he wanted to tell him about her magic. She hoped he knew what he was getting them into.

“Really?” Edgar’s eyebrows rose up more, if that was even possible. “Could you show me? I’ve never actually seen magic before. I thought that it had vanished after the War of the Magi.” His mouth was tight, as if he was trying to keep from smiling or saying more.

Terra saw that the dining table had fresh unlit candles lined down the middle, and decided that she could show him with those. So she concentrated for a few seconds on flicking a spell on to each of the wicks, and then they were burning brightly without any smoke issuing from their flames.

“Amazing,” was Edgar’s only response as he pulled one of the candleholders closer to him to inspect the blazes.

“I didn’t know you could do that without using your hands,” Locke clapped his hands together a few times in praise.

Before the three could continue their conversation, the servants returned to the dining room, each pushing a metal cart in front of them bearing different dishes of food and bottles of drink.

The servants did not seem to notice the candles glowing brightly as they placed the dishes and jugs and bottles on the table in a neat arrangement that allowed each guest to reach the food with ease. Edgar smiled and said his thanks as the last plate was placed, and the servants left the room promptly.

“You know, it’s really nice to have candles burning without any smoke coming from them. It makes the whole room so stuffy after a while, otherwise,” Edgar said with a smile. He poured himself a glass full of something purple from the nearest jug.

Locke started piling biscuits and potatoes on his plate at a rapid rate, “I wonder what it must feel like to use magic.” Apparently Locke spoke with his mouth full because Edgar gave him a pointed frown.

When Edgar’s eyes trailed back to Terra, she shifted her gaze away quickly to the bowl of brown gravy directly in front of her plate. She busied herself with putting a bit of each different dish within reach on to her plate so she could find out which foods she liked the most.

“Do you happen to have any memory of how you came by such a gift, Terra?” the king’s voice was soft and measured over Locke’s loud chewing.

Her hand froze for a second at the teakettle’s handle, but she continued her act of pouring a cup of tea. The tea had a dark red color in her cup, and she decided to pour some cream into it after tasting with her spoon.

“No, I don’t remember anything at all about my magic. It feels like something that is as much a part of me as my arms or legs.” Terra paused to take a sip and eye Edgar over the rim of the cup. He was watching her as he took a drink from his own glass, but she did not look away that time.

“Has anything been coming back to you, though? Any memories at all?”

Locke swallowed his current mouthful of potato and stopped Terra from replying, “She only remembers little things, Ed, like what kind of apples she likes.” That was a lie. Terra glanced at Locke for a moment and saw that he was staring down Edgar with an intensity she had not yet seen. 

She figured that Locke had to have a reason for lying to Edgar about that, and resumed picking apart her biscuit to dip into the gravy. The rich flavor on her tongue made her let out a pleased little noise and broke the men’s staring contest. The thief showed her that she could pour some gravy on top of her biscuits instead of dipping them in the tureen.

The conversation turned back to the Imperials in the Figaroan kingdom after that, and Terra was quite pleased with all of the foods she ate as she listened.

“They have been stopping the coal trains in the mountains at each fueling station, too, besides looking for us,” said Locke through a mouthful of porridge after finishing his previous dish.

“Gods, man, use a napkin!” Edgar tossed one at Locke’s head while looking up from his bacon. Locke snatched the napkin out of the air nimbly with his free hand and wiped at the porridge he had dribbled onto the tablecloth.

“Anyways,” Locke continued, “it seems like the Empire is just doing what they wish up here. I mean, that’s kind of what they normally do when they send troops anywhere, but don’t they send ambassadors to you first before barging in? Feels kinda like they’re treating the mighty kingdom of Figaro like it’s Maranda.”

“This is the first time since the alliance was created that the Emperor hasn’t sent somebody beforehand. Yes, it is merely a nicety, but to neglect to do so after over twenty years?” He let the question hang as he took a bite of his toast. “I must say that I do indeed feel slighted!” Edgar gave them a wry smile. He opened his navy blue coat and extracted a rolled up bit of parchment from an inside pocket. Edgar unrolled the paper and sat candles on each edge to keep it flat.

Upon looking closer at the paper, Terra could make out different brown and green shapes on a background of blue with writing all over the page in black ink. Flashes of the insides of tents with a person pointing at different places on a map tacked to the supporting beams burned in her mind. But instead of immediately telling Locke what she had remembered, Terra kept quiet in favor of hearing what Edgar was saying.

The king pointed at a place on the coast south of a yellow area on the map that was supposed to be Figaro desert. “This is where the troops are docked.”

“Well, that makes a lot of sense. They can patrol from different directions,” Locke grimaced. “Do you know how long they’ve been hanging out down there?”

“From what my men have told me, the Empire has been docked in my kingdom for about eight or nine days now.” Edgar downed a cup of tea quickly with a scowl. “I have a good idea of who is leading this expedition north. Only one of the Imperial generals would do as they please in foreign lands without at least sending a pleasantry letter.”

“Are you going to do anything about them?” Terra asked quietly, her biscuits lay forgotten.

Edgar gave her a pleased smile and proceeded to yank out a pad of paper from another pocket hidden inside of his coat and a pen with black ink. “I will show you what I intend to do!” He started writing quickly over the blank page. “I’m going to write a politely confused letter to the leader of this recent Imperial excursion and invite them for tea.”

Edgar signed off the note with a flourishing hand that must have had the motions down to muscle memory. He stood from his seat and went to a corner of the room and pulled on a rope hidden behind a wine colored tapestry. As he returned to his seat, a servant came into the room swiftly.

"You summoned me, your grace?" the servant asked, bowing his head deeply as he spoke. 

"Yes, please deliver this letter to General Kefka as soon as possible. His ship is docked south of the desert near the caves." Edgar folded the note a few times and handed it off to the servant with a smile. 

"Of course, your grace. Would you like me to bring one of your special service members with me on this errand?" 

"That sounds like a good idea, thank you. Use some chocobos from the stables as well." The servant bowed at this and pocketed the letter in his coat before leaving the room.  

* * *

 

Locke’s long drawn out details of the castle’s hospitality were not exaggerations, as Terra had suspected previously. She would have to thank him for briefing her about the legion of maids later, or she would have reacted like an alley cat thrown in a bucket of ice cold water when the women in matching soft red uniforms with crisp white aprons practically carried her into the big round steaming bathtub.

The water was hot, but not scalding, and the soaps and oils they used to scrub the grime of travel from her skin smelled heavenly. Terra tried to dispatch the maids so she could wash herself, but only managed to scrub herself with a cloth while a couple of happy maids rubbed at her scalp and admired her unique hair color. The remaining maids busied themselves with cleaning and mending Terra’s clothes with quick efficiency.

“Goodness, is this shade popular down on the Southern Continent these days?” one maid asked, working the soap into her curls with a vengeance.

“Such a lovely color, and it really brings out your eyes, Lady Terra!” With that they dumped a bucket of warm water over her head to rinse the soap out of her hair. Terra sputtered water out of her nose and tried to smile appreciatively as the maids helped her stand and wrap big towels around her body and head.

“Thank you very much,” Terra was unsure of what else she should say to them. She wanted to get dressed and be left with her thoughts for a while, but the maids weren’t having it apparently.

Before the maids set to work on drying her hair and brushing out the snarls, a smooth yet firm voice called out, "Good gracious girls, leave the poor gal alone! I think she can brush her own hair."

Terra peered around the bedroom as she stepped out of the bathroom and saw an older woman dressed in a fine red dress, like the maids, but with lace around her collar and cuffs making her way calmly to one of the cushioned chairs by the fireplace. The maids halted at once upon hearing the new woman's voice and bowed their heads as if they were children being scolded.

"It's not like she's preparing for a royal supper or anything like that, so stop acting as if she were," the woman sank into her chair gracefully as she spoke. Her tone was not at all harsh, and she smiled at Terra when she met eyes with her. 

The maids bowed again at this and gathered up their washing things to leave.

"Sorry Madam, "one maid explained, "King Edgar asked us to see to Lady Terra. He wanted us to prepare her properly like a queen."

"Yes, he was very specific about that," another piped in with a small smile. 

The woman rubbed at her temples and shook her head. "Gods, it sounds as if he's going to try to wine and dine her later."

"Perhaps he only wanted to show the hospitality of Figaro since she's here with Mister Cole?" 

"No matter, I'll attend to Lady Terra for now, girls. Go on about your other duties, please." she waved them off and turned to Terra who was rubbing one of the thick towels through her hair by the bed where her clothes were laid out. 

"I'm sorry, but who are you, ma'am?" Terra asked, hoping she wouldn't come off as rude. 

"No need to be sorry, dear. Call me Matron. It's what I am, after all." As she saw Terra's curious look, Matron continued, "I take care of the king and the more domestic side of his castle since he doesn't have his mother around to do it anymore. I've been around since the time of the boys' father coming of age for the throne."

"Wait, 'boys?' Does that mean that Edgar has a brother?" Terra pulled on her underclothes, freshly cleaned, and her dress behind the dressing screen. Her head poked out at the side, looking to Matron for an answer. 

Matron sat a large basket on her lap and dug through it, "Why yes, haven't you heard from Mister Cole about it yet?"

Terra shook her head before she went back behind the screen to pull on her mended stockings and boots. 

"That's surprising. Mister Cole loves to jabber on like a parrot. But yes, the king does have a younger twin. His name's Sabin." Matron brought out some new underclothes and stockings from the depths of the basket for Terra to look over. 

Terra came out and sat in the chair opposite Matron, taking in the older woman's laugh lines, her tightly pulled back gray hair, and kind eyes so she wouldn't forget a detail later on. 

"Here, the king asked me to bring you some new clothes for your travels. He suspected that with recent events, you may not have many sets of clothes in that pack of yours." She showed Terra each item and let her choose whichever she liked best to take with her. Terra chose three sets of white stockings, five sets of underclothes, a light pink cloak, and once this was finished, Matron pulled out a measuring tape and asked Terra to stand while she measured Terra's body for a new dress.

"Would you like a dress in a similar style to the one you're wearing now?" Matron asked as she scribbled down the numbers on a scrap of paper.

"Yes, please. Thank you for all of this; you're all being so kind to me." Terra moved herself sideways for Matron to measure her sides from under her armpit down to her knees. 

"It's no problem at all, dear. I enjoy having a young lady to look after."  Terra looked about the room as Matron worked, noticing the finely carved furniture, the little knick-knacks lining the shelf above the fireplace, and the intricate patterns woven into the rugs on the floor.

"So, what happened to Sabin? Is he here in the castle, too?" Terra asked once Matron was finished. 

Matron shook her head, "No, sadly. The boy left the castle about ten years ago after their father died. Couldn't stand the way everybody was acting at the king's deathbed. We haven't seen him since."

"I hope he's alright, where ever he is," Terra said, to which Matron agreed heartily. 

* * *

 

“Figaro doesn’t mess around when they get wind of allies in their kingdom, do they?”

“Nope, though I don’t blame them, what with all that’s been happening as of late.”

“It’s a bit strange though, compared to Maranda and all.”

“You shouldn’t compare the kingdom of Figaro to a little hole in the wall with a couple of nobles running everything. Completely different attitudes.”

Three suits of special Magitek armor made their way to Figaro castle after having received a letter from the king. They were moving quickly over the desert sands and could see a faint dark blob on the horizon line that transformed into the tall stone walls that surrounded Figaro castle as the small group got closer.

“Would you two shut your noise holes back there, or should I do it for you?” their superior officer up ahead snapped.

Instead of replying, the two Imperial soldiers clammed up and exchanged glances from their cockpits. They knew better than to reply, even with a “yes sir!,” with General Kefka in the mood he was in that day.

The soldiers kept working the buttons and levers of their suits as they walked along through the desert. Warm air was pushed back out with a new ventilation system designed recently to keep the suits cool. Not only did this system keep the armor from overheating, which was a big problem when they were first designed and tested in hotter climates, but it helped the soldiers within focus more comfortably and keep from dying of heatstroke.

“Look alert, men. We’re approaching the castle gates,” Kefka shouted after a few minutes of quiet travel, causing both of his men to jump at his sudden announcement.

“Yes sir!” they replied in unison. 

Men in dark green uniforms on chocoback could be seen patrolling the gates, and soon the high flying Figaroan flags were visible.

“Excuse me!” called one of the Figaroan guard as he trotted up to General Kefka.

“Sir Kefka, what on earth are you doing here already? We haven’t received a reply letter from you, as far as I know, and-”

“I’m here now, aren’t I? It is of the utmost importance that I have the attentions of your king. Let King Edgar know that I need an audience with  him immediately.” Kefka nearly ran over the guard as he hurried past in his armor before bringing it to an abrupt stop and hopped out of the cockpit with a flutter of his light red cape.

His two Imperial soldiers stopped their armors in line with their general’s, and climbed out to await further orders. Their Magitek suits were not far from the castle gates, and upon King Edgar’s request months before, they could not leave their armor in the chocobo stables any longer. Apparently the weapons put the large birds on edge.

The guard Kefka almost plowed over dismounted from his chocobo and scrambled into the castle to announce their arrival.

Four more of the Figaroan guard came up and greeted the Imperials, as custom commanded, but one lingered. He caught Kefka’s eye and nodded once before retreating to his assigned post.

General Kefka gave no sign of acknowledgment, and instead surveyed his men for a moment with a critical eye.

“Adjust your coats and shirts, men. You don’t want to dishonor the Emperor by looking like mere wretches in the streets of Zozo, do you?” Kefka checked his own dark gray uniform as he spoke, straightening his gold buttons and pins on his high collar.

A Figaroan guardsman emerged from the front entrance of the castle, “Pardon me, Sir Kefka, please follow me. His grace will see you once we notify him of your arrival." 

* * *

 

The castle courtyard was a tizzy of activity, as was usual around midday, what with the merchants shouting, somewhat aggressively at passersby to take a look at their wares, the children running around chasing each other or clinging to their mother's skirts, and the general noise of footsteps on stone. The whole affair was intensely exciting to witness, Terra found, as she and Locke wandered around the rows of merchant stalls at a leisurely pace. 

As they were passing one particular merchant stall, which had many different types of jewelry and oddments of fabric, the owner jumped up from his stool and shouted, "HEY! YOU!" The man pointed at Locke's head, causing the pair to stop, looking bewilderedly back and forth between each other and the merchant. 

Locke quirked his eyebrows up, "You talking to me?" Other people in the area stopped and turned in their direction at the sudden outburst.

"Yeah! You owe me a few hundred gil, ya thief!" The man's mustache nearly obscured his mouth, but only accentuated his frown all the more. He wiped at the sweat at his temple with his other hand, eyes livid.

"'Scuse me, sir, but you have to have me confused with somebody else..." And before Locke could finish his sentence, the merchant shouted that he definitely remembered the vagrant who swiped three necklaces, a golden pocket watch, several earrings, and some rings the month before.

"You've got the same stupid bandanas tied around your head and the same dusty patched up jacket! I know it's you!" The merchant was nearly hopping up and down as he shouted at Locke. Terra backed up a pace, nearly bumping into a blonde woman with two children who had stopped to watch the show. 

She heard Locke reply with an edge in his voice about how he wasn't a bloody thief, but the rest was lost on her as she saw a sudden break in the crowd and a Figaroan guardsman sprinting towards the main doors leading into the castle. 

Locke grabbed Terra's hand and brought her back into the conversation, "Isn't that right, huh? I was with you last month! I wasn't even here to steal anything!" even though she was still watching the guard as he disappeared into the doors. Locke followed her line of sight and then whipped his head back in the other direction towards where the guard had come from. 

"Fuck." He muttered, ignoring the merchant's boisterous claims, and dug a hand into his jeans pocket. 

He withdrew a leather purse and threw it at the merchant's face before pulling Terra along after him into the crowd. 

"You've got a knife or two on ya, right, Ter?" Locke asked loud enough to be heard over the clamor that soon came over the crowds in the marketplace. 

"Yes," came her reply as Locke slid a hidden dagger from the cuff of his glove into his palm just in case. 

Locke led Terra so quickly through the market that she could only see glimpses of what they were running from. People's faces and chocobo beaks got in the way of the very familiar gray uniform making its way through the middle of the courtyard. Two brown uniformed men followed in his wake with matching helmets that grazed the tops of their eyes. 

Terra's heart flopped around in her chest painfully.

Then they were in a small alcove with cold stone walls and the din of the marketplace on the other side of the door.  

* * *

 

Edgar sat with his legs crossed in his throne waiting for his guests to be announced. Usually, when he would send a note to General Kefka or Leo, or even to the Emperor himself, he would receive a reply with an estimated time of arrival, as was one of the agreed upon conditions of the alliance between Figaro and the Empire. Meetings should be announced to both sides to avoid trouble. Despite what was known about Kefka's behavior, he was always careful about keeping to rules. This sudden change was unsettling. 

The large doors opened, "King Edgar, General Kefka and two of his soldiers request an audience with you." His guard bowed a bit and before Edgar could even so much as respond to the request, in came Kefka. 

Edgar's guard was pushed to the side in the process, and shouted, "Sir, you cannot just enter the throne room without permission!" as he staggered into the side of the door. 

"It must be extremely important if the good general cannot wait," Edgar gestured for his guards to come into the throne room as well. 

Kefka and his soldiers continued in as if they did not hear anything at all and came to a stop a few paces from the steps leading to the thrones. Kefka did not drop to one knee as was custom, nor did his men. 

"King Edgar, we need to speak about something very important." Kefka looked at Edgar right in the eyes as he spoke.

"Why yes, we do. Starting with the matter of why you have come into my kingdom without announcing yourselves first, or even asking permission. We have an alliance." 

Kefka sneered at this, "We have our reasons." 

"I'm sure you do. And I would be delighted to hear them!" Edgar smiled his Figaro smile and rested his chin in his hand, waiting. 

"Before I explain, may I ask if anybody in your castle has seen a girl who escaped from us recently?" Kefka's face dropped its sneer and became serious. 

"Oh, a girl, you say?" Edgar rose and rubbed his chin in thought. "There are so many girls here that it would be easier to go count all of the grains of sand in the desert! Perhaps you could describe this girl to me over a cup of tea? You and your men must have had a long journey and you must be parched! How about we retire to one of my tearooms while your men join mine in the dining room for refreshments?" 

"Fine," came Kefka's response. Edgar walked up to one of his guards and asked him to show Kefka's soldiers to the dining room. 

“Now, if you will be so kind as to follow me, General?” Edgar looked at Kefka as he said this and proceeded to lead him out of the throne room by way of a curtained doorway.

The passage led to a cozy little tea room with a small fireplace which was not currently lit, and several squashy armchairs in shades of red and green.

Edgar pulled a rope in the corner of the room for a servant and invited Kefka to sit wherever he liked. But Kefka did not sit down just yet. He stood erect with his arms folded across his chest, his gray eyes flitting from the little brass candle holders fitted into the stonewalls to the doilies resting on the polished coffee table standing between the armchairs.

The same elderly servant who served the king and his guests breakfast earlier in the day entered the room with a deep bow, but not without a quick glance at the general.

“My liege,” the butler said, awaiting orders.

“General Kefka and I would like the tea tray to be brought,” Edgar sank into one of the green armchairs as he spoke.

“Yes, your grace,” the butler turned to General Kefka and asked if he had any special requests.

“No, thank you.” Kefka replied stiffly, not even looking at the butler.

Once the servant bowed again and left the tearoom, Kefka spoke before Edgar could implore him to take a seat as well.

“Did any of your little spies or guards see the girl or not?” Kefka’s eyes bored into Edgar’s, making it very hard for the king to look away.

“I could do with a description of this girl, General.” Edgar replied cooly.

This seemed to make Kefka stand even more rigid. “She would stand out quite a bit. Trust me on that.”

“I wonder what that means! Is the girl taller than I? Does she have big yellow fangs jutting out of her mouth?” Edgar let out a bit of a laugh before leaning towards Kefka and smiling his Figaro smile again.

“Or is she the Imperial Witch who I’ve heard so very much about? You know the rumors, I’m sure. Where she apparently torched fifty of her own fellow soldiers within a few moments with real magic. Not just that Magitek you all have been using.”  

* * *

 

Locke and Terra moved as quietly as they could through the small tunnel and soon the sounds from the marketplace were faded completely. Locke seemed to know his way around the tunnels well, and yet Terra's heart thudded hard in her chest, making her feel queasy. Ever since she saw that specific uniform, she felt cold. She tried to remember anything at all as to why, but her mind drew up empty. 

The tunnel was dark and very quiet as they went along, and as they passed around a bend to the left, Terra heard something nearby. She stopped, causing Locke's hand to jerk as he tried stepping forwards.

"What's up?" he whispered back.

"Did you hear that?" she replied, listening hard. She felt Locke crouch closer to her, listening. 

_"...Witch...here..."_

"There!" Terra hissed at Locke, squeezing his hand harder. 

"Yeah, I heard it that time," Locke replied as if distracted. Terra could see the darker shape of his head crane around. 

"We must be near one of the guards' dining rooms or something. Knowing Ed, he's probably got his guards having drinks with Kefka's men." 

Locke made to continue moving along the tunnel, tugging Terra gently along with him, "Wouldn't King Edgar want to watch all of Kefka's group?"

"Well he is. Edgar's guards all answer directly to him. He has them all watching each other too to hold them all accountable," Locke led her around another bend in the tunnel to the right, taking light steps like a cat. "And sure, there can be problems every now and then. Whenever Edgar gets new guardsmen in from South Figaro, he has to break them in and all that. But he hasn't had trouble with his guards lying or anything bad like that in about ten years when he first took the throne. Then again, back then, there were other problems going on anyways."

Before Locke could continue explaining, they heard another noise, this time, louder. Glasses clanked against each other somewhere nearby, and a few men cheered a toast in unison. 

Locke paused, "Ah! Here we go," he let go of Terra's hand and from what she could make out in the darkness, he began brushing his hands over the cold stone walls, feeling for something.

"Locke? Where are we?" Terra watched his general form while she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned her side against the wall. 

"If I can find the switch hidden around here somewhere, then we can listen in on what's going on with the Imperials and Ed's guards," he whispered, still running his hands from short ceiling to the ground below, searching for the small switch about as small and thin as a candle wick. 

But Terra's attentions went from watching Locke to another sound off in the distance behind them. 

"Got it!" Locke exclaimed in a whisper. His ring finger pushed back the switch and allowed one of the stones in the wall to pull up about an inch on their side of the wall. More sounds rushed out of the crack to greet them. Terra ignored the impulse to go investigate the odd sound in the distance and came to crouch next to Locke. 

"'S good ale you've got here!" a deep voice sighed.

"Thank you kindly. Your Vectorian ale is impeccable, though!" another voice answered.

"So how're the girls around these parts? I hear the king keeps a whole coop full of the sweetest birds!"

"Oh, there are plenty of lovely girls around here. So many to choose from."

"The king danced with over thirty young ladies at the last ball. Such a lucky man," a new voice chuckled.

A chair scratched along the floor, as if being pushed back from a table, "I'll be back in a jiffy. Need to find a washroom." One of the men called out directions from his seat, to which the other man grunted in acknowledgment as his footsteps retreated from the room.

"At least the Imperials aren't acting like the usually do..." Locke muttered.

"Terra? We need to go ahead and find a hiding spot until the Imperials leave," Locke said softly with his ear still at the opening in the wall. When he didn't hear her usual soft reply, he jerked his head away from the spot. 

"Terra?" 

* * *

 

Terra slipped away quietly down to the end of the dim passage while Locke was still listening to the chatter coming from the hole in the wall. She heard odd sounds that were not Locke's muttered comments to himself about the Imperials being arrogant normally, and decided to investigate, listening hard for more of those strange sounds. Her curiosity pushed her unease and better judgment to the wayside, and she figured that after a little while, she could go back to Locke without any trouble. She felt her way along the stones, and out of nowhere her hand bumped into a cold, smooth, rounded object jutting out of the wall. 

"What's this?" she whispered to herself, running her hand down along with it to where it disappeared into the stone floor. She realized that it must be one of those odd steel pipes she had seen around the castle when she and Locke were wandering around after her bath. 

She crept along slowly, and the further she went, she started hearing metal grinding on metal coming from the walls all around her. The noises got louder and louder and she was so absorbed in feeling her way along and listening that she bumped face first into another wall. 

"Ow..." she rubbed at her nose, which got the worst of it, "wait, this feels different." Terra ran her hands over the new wall in front of her, and felt that it wasn't stone at all, but some sort of metal with what had to be a door handle. She tugged at it and the heavy thing opened slowly with a low squeak that she hoped nobody could hear over the mechanical grinding and groaning coming from the walls. Terra peered in through the small opening, being careful to avoid somebody catching her, and saw metal bars, buckets full with foul smelling contents, and men. There was a Figaroan guard seated at a desk across the large room by a set of high stairs writing in a thin book. 

"UGH. When's lunch?!" a bearded man in a ragged shirt and pants shouted at the guard. A few of the other men behind the iron bars going from the ceiling into the floor started agreeing and asking the question over and over with a swear or two thrown in. 

"And maybe we could use a bath, you bastard!" another man called, kicking his feet at the bars. This man had on clothes which reminded Terra of what she had seen people in Narshe wearing: the dark blue shirt with a high collar, leather gloves with cuffs that went all the way to his elbows, coarse brown trousers, and high boots with fur lining the tops. In a pile in the front corner of his cell was a heavy ashy gray fur coat, matching cloak, and what looked like an enormous wolf's head. 

"Yeah! Lone Wolf has a point! I thought I was just smelling the shit pots, but the gross smell in my cell is me! Eugh!!" the scrub in the cell next to Lone Wolf added to the guard. He raised an arm and sniffed at his armpit with a scrunched up face, and plopped down onto the stone floor with some grumbles to himself. 

"Alright, alright!" The guard answered finally after closing his book and setting down his pen. He stood and walked through the walkway in between the two rows of prison cells along the walls, eyeing each of the inmates. 

"It is lunch time, so I'll go grab your food. And I'll ask the maids to set up some wash basins for you and have them haul off those chamber pots." With that, the guard walked away and up the staircase, and Terra heard the sound of a door closing heavily. 

Terra watched the prisoners for a few moments longer, debating with herself whether or not she should retrace her steps back to Locke. There was a chance that she'd get lost though, what with the different passages leading off in different directions. She was starting to see why Locke liked exploring so much because of all of the interesting things to be found.

"Maybe it'll be easier to go out the way the guard left. At least that way I can see where I'm going," she gulped hard, and opened the big door some more with a loud creak that echoed off the walls and made nearly all of the prisoners jump. She knew that Locke wanted to keep her hidden from the Imperials, but that wouldn't do much good if she was hidden and lost and couldn't find him again.

As she slipped out, careful not to let her bag get caught, she was met with a chorus of "What the hell?!" from the prisoners.

"Where'd you come from?"

"Hey, help us get out of here, beautiful! C'mon!"

Some of the prisoners were reaching towards Terra in between the bars of their cells, waving their arms around and yelling for her to help them out as she scurried past, hoping that none of them would grab hold of her ponytail. She hurried up the stairs and ran out of the door, and ended up in one of the corridors of the castle lined with the suits of armor and paintings hanging on the walls. 

Terra jogged as quietly as she could down the corridor before anybody came along to see her. 

* * *

 

By a brightly painted scene of a famous opera out of Jidoor, which was a gift for the late queen from what Locke could remember, was a Figaroan guardsman, seemingly on watch in the corridor, despite there not being any other guards present.

The guards usually operated on a sort of buddy-system unless one of the captains was accompanying the king or Chancellor or some other important person around.

But this guard was not a captain, or even one of the section leaders who managed guards in their assigned portion of the castle. He only had the standard crimson and green uniform without all of the golden shiny embellishments which showed rank and accomplishments. 

Locke peered out from behind the heavy tapestry, careful not to move it too much so he wouldn't catch the eye of the guard who was loitering, not even bothering to look alert. He saw that the man was the same guard who stopped him and Terra that morning, acting as if they were beggars from the streets.

"They really gotta keep on training this guy...looks like he's nearly leaning against that painting!" Locke thought, shaking his head in a tutting manner.

Locke slipped his head back behind the tapestry when he saw one of the Imperials turn down the corridor heading their way. Thankfully it wasn't Kefka.

Instead of hearing the heavy footsteps pass on by after a few moments like Locke expected, they stopped. Locke wondered if the Imperial was about to pick a fight. 

"Is she here?" came a whisper.

"Yes, I saw her this morning. A scrub with brown hair and bandanas tied around his head brought her. She had a scarf on her head to hide her hair, but it was definitely her," was the response.

Locke leaned closer from his spot, straining to hear better.

"Any ideas about where the King's hiding her?" the Imperial spoke lower, most likely covering his mouth with a hand. 

"Probably in the engine rooms below; take the stairs down across from the dungeon. The King's really touchy about who goes down there, so there's probably a nook or cranny he stuffed the Witch in."

Locke chanced leaning a bit closer to the edge of the tapestry to see the pair, and caught a shared nod before the Imperial strode away down the corridor, his steps echoing louder this time. The guard waited by the painting until the Imperial turned the corner before going off in the opposite direction. 

After slipping out from his hiding place, Locke took off in the direction the Imperial went, trying to keep his steps as quiet as he could, "Shit! Gotta find Ter fast!" 

* * *

 

Small little oil lamps flickered their light from their dome shaped fixtures in the stone walls as the Imperial moved as quietly as he could through the first engine room he found while he had been searching the castle for the correct entrance. Moving silently was nearly impossible due to the steel plates bolted down to the floor, but the general hum of the chugging machines hid his footsteps for the most part. 

The Imperial had made it past the first landing where huge stone columns were fit into the walls and odd looking gages pointed their thin arms at numbers in the little glass spheres. As soon as he crept down the circular steel staircase, he was overcome with the smell of motor oil and fuel. If he could make his way down to the lower floors of the engine rooms, perhaps he could find the girl. 

"Well, well, well. What is an Imperial soldier doing all the way down here in the engine rooms, hm?" A gruff looking engineer moved into the lantern light with his eyebrows high and an amused smile on his face.

The soldier immediately started backing away slowly, his left hand went to his belt, his eyes on the engineer.

"What business is it of yours?" the Imperial retorted, the back of his tall brown booted foot coming into contact with the side of one of the many enormous machines moaning and vibrating low as if it were a slumbering beast having a fitful dream. He stopped, knowing that he was cornered and worst of all: caught. 

"I'd say it's my business through and through, seeing as how I'm one of the King's top engineers." The man did not say this with a puffed up chest, no, he said it with his eyes glinting dangerously. "And nobody is allowed down here without the King's permission." 

The engineer slid his arm out towards the wall nearest him and pressed a concealed button before the Imperial could say anything back, and within seconds an alarm bell started rattling off so loud it could be heard all over the castle. 

Then the soldier drew out a handgun and pulled the trigger right as thundering footsteps could be  heard coming towards the engine room along with the alarm bells. The engineer's face exploded, and what was left of his body fell heavily backwards onto the metal flooring. 

"CARTRIGHT!" The Figaroan guardsmen reached the Imperial soldier a moment after the engineer's blood started pooling around where his neck should have been.

Aim, fire. Aim, fire. The Imperial went into a sort of haze as he mechanically aimed and fired his gun at two of the guardsmen. He caught one in the neck, causing his windpipe to be partially exposed as the side of his jaw and ear slopped against the wall, and the other guard caught a bullet in the left part of his chest. But the Imperial soldier could not see what happened next after he fired another round of bullets since the rest of the Figaroan guardsmen just outright tackled him to the floor. 

One guard wrenched the gun from his hand, cocked it, and pushed the opening right up to the side of his temple.

"You try anything else, and I blow your fucking head off. Got it?" 

The Imperial nodded quick and went as limp as he could while the guards who were not bending over the dead mens' remains grabbed onto him at different parts of his body and heaved him up. They dragged him up the staircase quickly, but they were not too careful with him because as they went along, the back of the Imperial's head banged against the handrail several times. White sparks fluttered behind his eyelids.

He did not see a new group of Figaroan guards rush downstairs to tend to the dead men. He did not see more of the first landing where switches and control panels were opened up to shut off the alarm bells. The Imperial soldier also did not feel the kicks and punches he received once the guards dropped him face first on the floor once they entered the gatehouse. 

* * *

 

Edgar sipped at his tea lightly while he watched the good general watching him.

"I've heard that you're docked to the south near the caves leading to South Figaro," Edgar did not see any hint of a reaction from Kefka at this.

"Have you or any of your men gone there yet to visit? The inns are serving goose and duck now that they're in season. Very delicious, I hear," he continued, smiling as he swirled his tea around in the cup, careful not to slosh it over the side.

Kefka kept his face neutral as he reached for a couple of cookies from the tea tray. "No, we haven't gone there. Yet. Besides, those of us on the Southern continent prefer our own game, with all respect."

Edgar let out a kindly laugh, "Oh, isn't that the way of all lands? We each prefer what reminds us of home!"

Kefka did not laugh, or smile, or even politely grimace at Edgar's declaration. Instead, he put his cup and saucer down on the tray and briskly stood. Edgar's face remained calm, eyes directly on the general.

"You did not answer my question earlier, King Edgar."

"What do you mean? I believe I did-"

At this, Kefka rushed at Edgar, moving so quickly that Edgar's eyes delayed registering the general standing from his seat until Kefka was mere inches away from him. Kefka leaned down and brought his face in close to Edgar's, looking him straight in the eye as he grasped the arms of Edgar's chair, giving him no escape. 

"Is she here?" Kefka's voice was barely a whisper, his eyes glowering with a desperation Edgar had never seen from the general. His warm breath tickled Edgar's nose.

"No," Edgar replied, "Your little Witch Girl is not here. It's a shame you lost her, too. A wonder, that is, losing a girl under the control of a slave crown. Such a shame."

With a jerk, Kefka's left hand thrust through the air, the hand about to make contact with Edgar's jaw, when the king flinched. Or seemed to flinch.

In the next instant, Kefka did not feel skin or jaw bone. His wrist was caught in Edgar's fist.

Edgar raised an eyebrow in that Figaro way of his, "Upset? A little too close to home?" his grip tightened. "I believe you must declare a formal duel, at least, before attacking one of aristocracy or royalty. We are both gentlemen after all. Wouldn't want to embarrass Emperor Gestahl."

Kefka grimaced and spat in Edgar's face, causing the king to grunt in disgust. "Well that was rude."

They both jumped when the alarm went off with a piercing ring.

Then the door burst open with a bang as a gaggle of Edgar's guardsmen flooded into the tea room, all with wild eyes and heaving chests.

"King Edgar! The engine room!" his guard captain nearly screamed, voice high, before the scene in front of them registered.

Edgar, still holding onto Kefka's arm, craned his head around to see his men, "What happened?"

The guards were flummoxed. They all spoke at once, asking what in the world was going on between the two, seeming to forget all about the engine room for the moment.

Kefka jerked his arm out of Edgar's grasp and backed away from the king a few paces, looking from Edgar to the men with a guarded expression. Three of Edgar’s guards rushed forwards to pull Kefka away.

“What happened?” Edgar repeated as he stood. The alarm snapped off. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and quickly wiped Kefka’s spit from his nose.

The Chancellor took Edgar’s shoulder, pulling him along out of the room, leaving the remaining guardsmen to restrain Kefka’s hands behind his back with iron manacles.

“Cartright, sire! One of Kefka’s men shot him and a couple more,” to this Edgar’s face drained of color and he took off running to the engine rooms.

“Chancellor! Have the guards bring the Imperials to the courtyard! Round up everybody you can find!” Edgar called over his shoulder.

Soon the king sprinted out of the main wing of his castle and took a flight of stairs tucked in an out of the way corner near the old maid’s chambers. This brought him down to one of his entrances into the lower workshops where he found several of his mechanics trying to bind up the gaping wounds on a fellow’s arm with industrial tape they usually used to temporarily close up cracks in the fuel pipes.

“Who’s hurt?” he shouted over the loud cranking of machinery. A mechanic bolted up from his knees where he was helping tend to the moaning man’s injuries.

“My liege! Three of our men are dead, two were wounded in the process of trying to shield the new boiler you installed from the bullets!”

Edgar hurried over the man laid out on the floor, seeing that his left arm and shoulder got the worst of the shot where chunks of flesh were missing.

“None of our machines were hit during the fight, sire. Luckily,” the man continued.

“Alright. Where are the dead men, Al?” The king asked, still watching his men finish up binding the lacerations tight and secure. The chugging of the huge engines seemed to grow louder and louder in volume, causing Edgar’s words to be barely audible. But Al heard him and motioned in the direction of the offices where the walls were reinforced with sound deafening metals and wood. The bodies were in Cartright’s office.

Edgar went inside and found the three dead men laid out on the floor side by side, two sets of eyes closed. A few piles of Cartright’s books and spare work boots had been moved to the edge of the room by the engineer’s desk where diagrams for the new heating systems lay splayed out by a mug of coffee gone cold.

Cartright, Neill, Lester. Cartright’s head was blown off completely and all that remained were crooked bits of flesh and windpipe poking out between his clavicles. Lester was missing most of his neck and jaw. Neill had a bullet hole going right through where his heart was.

Al followed him in, averting his eyes away from the bodies to his king. Before he could address Edgar, the king said, “Make sure to prepare these men for their burials after we finish with our special guests. Notify their families as soon as you can.”

Edgar turned and swept out of the room to stop by his own office. He grabbed his modified crossbow up from his midnight blue colored armchair, slipped some spare bolts and screws into his pants pocket, and stuffed his worn journal into his other pocket the best he could along with a few pencils. He glanced around his large room that he’s practically lived in for years for anything else. He noticed his half-built new invention on the bookshelf and decided against trying to stuff that on his person somewhere. He did, however, grab up a handful of bowstrings and a screwdriver. With another quick look, he left and went up to another engineer.

“Prepare a new tank of fuel for the back engine.” The engineer nodded and hurried away past where the injured were still being tended.

Edgar cleared his throat and boomed, “You’ve all done well! Stay at the ready and remember your duties to the castle!” He punched his fist into the air, and with that, he ran up the stairs to the main landing and pushed out to the courtyard where what looked like the majority of his guard waited at attention.

At the center of the yard, where the richest merchant’s stalls usually set up in the morning markets, was Kefka and his two men restrained and on their knees, with guns and crossbows aimed at them by Edgar’s captains, awaiting orders. One of the Imperials looked half-conscious, head lolling to one side all bruised up with blood dribbling out of his mouth. Edgar gripped the handle of his crossbow tight.

The king approached, fighting to keep himself as composed as he could. His guards watched and moved out of the way as he made his way over to the beaten-up Imperial. “Looks like you’re the one who somehow found his way into my engine rooms. How did that happen?”

Both Kefka and his other man looked at their comrade while he struggled to move his jaw, which was sitting at an odd angle, looking back at his general with desperation in his eyes. Kefka did not say anything.

“Tell me why,” Edgar knelt on one knee in front of the Imperial, looking him straight in the eyes, “Now.” He held up his crossbow to the man’s face, causing him to shudder out more blood from his mouth.

“Who told you how to get down there? It's not somewhere you accidentally end up on the way to the lavatory.” Edgar pulled back the trigger with his thumb with a loud pop.

“It was Sam! Your new guard!” The other Imperial shouted at them.

Then, the guardsmen behind Edgar started yelling and shoving amongst themselves, and when one particular guard tried heaving his way backwards through the crowd, the other men around him pushed him back, blocking his escape. A captain broke away from his place in front of the prisoners and yanked the guard’s arm with him, earning a punch to the back of his head along with some slapping. But that did not deter the captain who continued forwards to his king and thrust the man to the ground roughly and kicked his back with a heavy booted foot.

Edgar stood and turned slowly, his crossbow still cocked, “Ah, so you’re our little spy. Six months of waiting for your friends to arrive…”

“This pathetic little kingdom is nothing against the Empire! Just another fly to swat down like Maranda!” The spy spat, to which he received a painful jab in the ribs with the butt of the captain’s gun.

“It seems that my little kingdom is more than a mere fly if you had to place a man on the inside,” the king turned back to face Kefka, “Seems as if you were going to pay us a visit whether recent events occurred or not.”

“Is the Witch here?” Kefka’s other man shouted. The Chancellor came up to Edgar’s left and shook his head at him. 

* * *

 

Terra ran through a set of doors she remembered led out to the courtyard panting, looking for her bandanaed friend. But just a few steps out, she stumbled into one of the Figaroan guardsmen, who yelped in surprise.

Apparently, everybody nearby heard their collision, and it took Terra a moment to register that nearly all the others in the courtyard were also guards. Who were all looking right at her.

“TERRA!” came Locke’s voice as he bounded out of the set of doors opposite her. Right as she saw him, he outright tackled her into a bear hug.

“Been looking all over for you!” Locked gasped into her hair as he squeezed her against him tight. “C’mon, we gotta…” he trailed off. The thief finally looked away from his mint haired friend long enough to also notice that Edgar’s entire legion was clustered into the courtyard around them.

And through a break in the crowd was Edgar and Kefka.

Terra pushed herself into Locke’s arms and tried to hide herself as much as she could when her green eyes met a familiar set of cold gray ones. 

_“Terra…my sweet little magic user…”_ the shivering voice echoed in her mind.

Kefka's eyes widened. She could not blink away from his gaze as a sudden bolt of lightning erupted out of Kefka’s body and blasted into the top of one of the rooftops with metal rotating fans. The fan spun out and fell into the crowd with an air slicing shriek. More lightning struck into the crowd at random, hitting men and stone alike, leaving scorch marks everywhere.

Kefka jerked up from the ground and blasted the irons around his wrists off with a flash, never looking away from Terra when the thief wrapped himself around her more to shield her from the strikes.

“Kefka! Stop this at once!” Edgar shouted, aiming his bow at the general’s head. The guards who were not still trying to restrain the other Imperials aimed their weapons at Kefka too.

“Give me the girl! She’s mine!” Kefka shrieked, causing more lightning to boom down and now balls of fire started to bubble out from his clenched fists. The fire whizzed around in red streaks, catching clothing and stone alike.

Edgar let loose a round of his arrows at Kefka, only to have them deflected by a flash of flame that swept along with the general’s arm to block his face. The king tried more rounds of arrows as his guards tried the same, but their attacks were blocked by more waves. The flames swelled out from Kefka, catching those closest to him. The other Imperials rushed out of the way and into the maddening crowd.

Streaks of fire rained down along with the lightning and crackled to life on every surface they touched and spread wildly.

A hand dragged Edgar away from Kefka right before his spell smashed into him and through the retreating chaos, “Run Ed!” Locke shouted over the ruckus of people crying out and running from the spells scorching everything in their path as Kefka screamed for Terra.

“Let me find the Chancellor first!” Edgar replied and pulled Locke and Terra with him, looking for the gold embellished crimson helmet in the sea of plain green helmets and rising flames. The trio ended up near the far west edge of the courtyard where a short stone wall rose from the cobblestones. More lightning rained down from the sky with thunderous booms all around them haphazard.

Locke and Terra pressed themselves into a corner along the wall where it met with another wall which was part of a wing leading into the castle. The Chancellor scrambled over, sweating bullets and grasping a blackened smoking hole in his uniform.

“Sire! Run! I’ll engage the dive!”

Edgar agreed and motioned Locke and Terra over to join him as the Chancellor disappeared into the crowd heading to the main hall. The king pulled out a section of the stone wall and punched the blue button hidden beneath. The wall broke open and a set of stairs ripped out the side of the castle leading down to the sand dunes below.

Locke grinned, “Brilliant, Mister Inventor!” and led the way down.

“Head to the stables!” Edgar replied, holding Terra’s hand as he started to lead her down after Locke. A burst of fire and lightning crashed into the pair, throwing them off the side of the castle. Without thinking, Terra’s magic surged out of her and surrounded her and Edgar, causing the spell to break around them.  They fell into the sand along with huge fragments of stone splashing sand up around them.

Terra jumped up first, stumbling, “Are you okay, Edgar?”

“Yes, now run!” the king flung himself up, glancing at his crossbow to make sure it wasn’t damaged, and started running towards where Locke had disappeared.

 More bolts of lightning crashed around them, growing in intensity, blowing chunks of stone off the castle, making the pair dodge around the debris as they ran.

Kefka’s screaming got louder, as if he was getting closer. Another raging ball of fire shot down at Terra and followed them in an arc as they weaved away, feet slipping in the sand.

Terra cried out, hands clenched at her chest as she let loose a fire spell that exploded back at Kefka’s, causing both to crash into the ground with a shower of sparks.

Locke had reached the chocobo stables at the southern end of the castle first and was leading three of the enormous yellow birds with him as he slammed the doors shut.

The castle suddenly let out a deafening rumble from within, drowning out all the screaming and crashes from above.

Edgar mounted his bird, one hand still holding onto his crossbow while he adjusted the reins with his other. Locke and Terra followed suit and they didn’t even have to steer their chocobos in the right direction because the birds were so scared they took off from the castle with their feathers ruffled squawking with fear.

Terra held tight to the reins as she looked back at Figaro castle, and gasped when she realized that the huge mass of gray stone was sinking into the sands. Windows were closing, flags retreating from their poles, and the rumbling grew louder as the castle seemed to shudder and plunged down faster.

She saw that the Magitek armor near the gates almost followed behind the castle into the sands, but were suddenly moving away quickly. The deeps rumblings of the castle receded behind them as sand dunes spilled into the gaping hole the structure left in its wake.

“Holy shit!” Locke yelled, looking back at the castle, “Those assholes escaped!”

Three sets of Magitek armor were chugging after them, their leg structures not even sliding on the sand dunes.

“Let’s see if this will slow them down!” Edgar called back, pulling his chocobo over to the side of their group as they continued sprinting away through the dunes. He aimed his crossbow at the closest armor and fired a round of steel arrows at what he hoped was the head of one of the pilots. But a flash of lightning interrupted their flight and the Magitek armors plowed through the black smoke, unfazed.

Scenes flashed through Terra’s mind of handbooks, symbols engraved into buttons on a control panel. “We’ve got to get away! They have missiles!” she cried at her companions.

“We’re gonna try, Ter, don’t you worry!” Locke flashed her a grin as he kicked his heels into his chocobo’s sides. Terra mimicked him, and their birds jumped and ran faster, leaving clouds of sand flying up behind them.

A flash of lightning ricocheted off a dune at the right of Terra’s chocobo, causing the bird to screech and flail away.

“Get her! Get her! Get her!” shrieked Kefka at his soldiers. One of the Imperials pulled back a lever and out of the front of his armor shot a tek laser at the group.

Terra screamed as she felt the rush of energy flying at them and released a green wave of light which spread out into a half sphere behind them, shielding them from the beam.

“You can’t just scamper away from me, little Terra!” came Kefka’s shrill voice. Terra’s hands shook uncontrollably, heart hammering away. She knew he was getting closer and closer.

“You’re my plaything and I hate losing my toys!” the general screamed, accenting his exclamation with more lightning spells following the group. The wounded Imperial launched a series of tek missiles at the racing chocobos, the first missile blasting one of the mens’ birds with a boom.

Locke was thrown forwards from his seat on his chocobo and he landed head first into a large sand dune, rolling after his impact sideways. His steed was left smoking on the ground several yards back, “Uweeheehee! Look men! Supper is already roasted for us!” Kefka cackled.

Edgar steered his bird over to Locke, yelling for Terra to keep going as he clamored down to pull Locke up onto his chocobo behind him. The thief was knocked out, but Edgar continued trying to drag his friend with him. The Imperials were advancing on them fast. Terra stopped and hopped down from her chocobo.

“Terra! What are you doing?! Run!” Edgar shouted, but Terra ignored him as she raised up her hands, fingers spread. She inhaled the hot dry air of the desert around them, feeling the heat of the sun surge into her body, willing her hands to stop shaking long enough to BAM! Her magic knocked her backwards as a blaze of fire rushed out of her hands when she screamed “Fire!” at the top of her lungs.

The spell was trained at Kefka, whose machine took the brunt of the blast and exploded, flinging the general out of his cockpit high into the air. His men continued coming at Terra as her knees buckled out from under her and she fell to the ground, feeling drained completely after that last spell.

Edgar dropped Locke for the moment and fired his crossbow at the Imperials. He flicked his fingers at a button on the side near the main trigger to keep the arrows flying on their own, finally able to strike the soldiers. The steel arrows struck into the mens’ faces, causing them to shout in pain. One tried ripping the shafts out of his neck, while the other finally slumped forwards onto his controls, dead. Due to the lack of button pushing and level controlling, the Magitek armors came to a stop after a few last stuttering steps.

The king snapped his crossbow off of its auto mode, and sat it on the ground next to Locke. He wiped at his brow with his sleeve and slapped Locke softly, trying to get the man to wake up. “Come on, get up, Locke.”

The thief finally started to stir, coughing roughly. Edgar let out a sigh of relief before deciding that Locke should be fully conscious in a moment, so he went over to Terra. Her eyes were half open, watching the Magitek armors standing before them, her chest was heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

Edgar knelt by her side and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Do you think you can stand? I can get you a potion from Locke’s bag.” Terra struggled to try speaking, her breathing still labored as she tried to use her arm to prop herself up.

Locke finally sat up on his own, still coughing, and started rummaging through his pack, and pulled out a pair of small bottles filled with sparkling bright blue liquid. “Give her one of these, Ed.” Locke uncorked one bottle and tossed it down his throat while he held out the other for Edgar.

“Gods, how the fuck did you two manage to stop these?” Locke gestured at the armors nearby, seeing that both pilots were dead, bleeding all over themselves.

Edgar helped Terra drink her potion, “Thanks to our little Miss here, is how.” Terra sputtered at the sharp fizzing in her throat as the potion went down, and almost immediately felt like she was regaining her strength. She didn’t add anything to what the king said and tried standing up on shaky legs. Edgar held her by the arm and shoulders to help her keep her balance.

“Where’s that creep?” Locke stood up, scratching at his bandanas and hair roughly to shake the sand out. He went over to Terra and Edgar, “I guess my chocobo’s out of commission too, if I remember right.”

“Yup, and I’m not sure where Kefka fell after Terra blasted his Magitek armor.” Edgar looked between his two companions to over at their remaining chocobos, who were pressed together, feathers all ruffled, hiding behind a massive sand dune, watching them.

Locke looked past the two armors nearest them to the smoking pile of metal, hoping to see the body of the Imperial general not far away, but saw nothing through the shifting sands. “Damn, well I guess we better get a move on just in case he’s still around.”

The thief went over to the chocobos and gently pulled one back with him and stopped in front of Terra, “C’mon, you’re gonna ride with me!”


End file.
